Some community leaders in Ezinano community, Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra, have expressed concern over the arrest of an indigene, Mr Jeff Nweke by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Nweke, Chief Executive Officer, Mango and Lion Properties Ltd, was arrested recently over alleged kidnapping of one Benjamin Ezemma, Vice Chairman of Dubai Estate on November 12, 2024.
There is apprehension in the community over the allegation of kidnapp levelled against Nweke who has been in the custody of the DSS.
The community leaders alleged that land grabbers framed Nweke in order to have access to their community land.
They said that Nweke had been vocal and employed resources to protect the community land against the activities of land grabbers in the area.
The community leaders alleged that the enemies of Nweke have decided to explore this means in order to get rid of their son and acquire their ancestral lands.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday in Awka, Chief Arinze Ekelem, the community leader, opined that the allegation are tissues of lies, fabricated by the enemies of Nweke in order to have free conquest of their community lands.
According to him, I don’t think their accusation is right because Nweke is above what they are accusing him of.
I am not ignorant of what they are saying in the social media of which all are mere frame up. However, the security operatives have a lot to do, concerning this.
The person in question, the CEO of Durbai Estate, I have heard a lot of stories about him as regards to some problems he had with his friends, customers and business partners.
Actually, I don’t know him one on one but sincerely speaking, Nweke cannot engage in such dirty thing because everybody knows what he can do.
In as much as I don’t know Benjamin Ezemma, I have heard much about him, concerning his good relationship with Ezinano people. We have never quarrelled with him.
So, having a cordial relationship with Ezinano community, what then would prompt an indegene of Ezinano to start thinking of doing anything bad to the man.
Nevertheless, security operatives are doing great job to unravel the secret, because even if a mad person wrote petition against someone, the DSS must definitely act.
After investigations, if the accused is discovered to be innocent he will be set free.
Ekelem who drew the attention of the state government to the issue appealed to the police and the DSS to conclude their investigations to enable the Court decide on the matter, alleging that the accused was innocent.
Similarly, Chief Richard Onuorah, another community leader from Ezinano, noted that Nweke has never been involved in any criminal activity in the area but rather the security taskforce Chairman of Ezinano.
“We read from the Facebook about this idea of roping him into this kidnapp allegation. This is just a gang up by some enemies to frame him up in order to reduce his integrity and drag his reputation to the mud before the people.
“He can’t do that and he has never done such before. Nweke is a man of integrity, we know him in Awka here,” he said.
Accordding to him, the enemies just want to use this means to see if they can remove him because of the land issue we have.
Ezinano have had land issues with Enugwu-Agidi and other towns, so, they are ganging up to see if it can be possible to use this measure to push him out so they will come and take what does not belong to them.
“At any rate, we must let the world and Anambra government to know about this gangsterism.
Recall that Anambra has been grappling with security challenges such as kidnapping, cultism, sit-at-home occasioned by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and armed robbery among other criminality.
These prompted the state government to establish security outfits such as Operation Peace Must Prevail and Agunachemba to tackle the menace.
