Enugu High Court Condemns Police Torture, Blocks Planned Arrests Linked to Igweship Conflict
A palpable sense of relief has spread across Mburubu community in Nkanu East LGA, Enugu State, following an order of the Enugu State High Court restraining the police from executing a planned mass arrest of over 70 prominent indigenes over the protracted Igweship dispute.
Those listed for arrest included the Enugu State Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Prince Lawrence Eze, the Prime Minister of Mburubu Kingdom, High Chief Linus Igbudu, and 74 others.
The order was issued by Hon. Justice C.O. Ajah in ex parte motion No. E/FHR/1458/2025, filed as an application for the enforcement of fundamental rights by the affected persons. A similar restraining order was granted in motion No. E/1093M/25, filed by 10 youths of Mburubu who had earlier been arrested, detained, and allegedly tortured by the police.
Defendants in both suits included the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, CSP Anosike Nduwuisi (SWAT Commander), Emmanuel Uchenna Ogazi (IPO SWAT), Ozo Jerry Patrick Onuokaibe, the Nigeria Police Force, and the Inspector‑General of Police.
The record shows that on 3 November 2025, SWAT operatives arrested 10 youths of the community, detaining them for three weeks. Upon release, they recounted harrowing experiences of torture, allegedly linked to their refusal to participate in a new yam festival organised by a disqualified Igweship aspirant, Ozo Jerry Onuokaibe.
Counsel to the applicants, Barr. Ike Ozo, urged the court to take judicial notice of the brutality meted out to the first applicant, Cletus Eze, who was left with visible torture marks. He sought restraining orders against further arrests or harassment, citing earlier subsisting judgments.
Justice Ajah had, on 1 February 2024, restrained Onuokaibe from parading himself as Igwe of Mburubu Kingdom. Similarly, Justice J.L.C. Okibe of the Amagunze High Court, in suit No. HAMA/24/2025, barred him from organising the new yam festival scheduled for 1 November 2025.
In his ruling, Justice Ajah held that the 29‑paragraph affidavit filed by the applicants raised cogent issues sufficient to sustain their claims. He condemned what he described as “scandalous disobedience” of subsisting court orders by the fourth defendant, aided by the police.
Speaking after the proceedings, Barr. Ozo explained that the case was instituted to secure justice for the tortured youths and to preserve the sanctity of the Mburubu Constitution of 1976, which provides for rotational succession to the Igweship stool. He noted that while Onuokaibe was entitled to aspire, his ambition must be pursued within the constitutional framework, which disqualified him since the next Igwe must come from Uhuagba village.
The community’s counsel further decried the role of the police, alleging that state apparatus had been procured to flagrantly disobey judicial orders. One of the victims, Cletus Eze, a PhD student of ESUT, recounted his ordeal under torture, stating: “I begged for death but death didn’t come.”
