Jonathan Nwokpor
Keep up with latest news and be part of our weekly giveaways and airtime sharing, follow our WhatsApp channel for more update. Click to Follow us
The community’s youth president, Amaze Chibuke, also known as Jaguar, is accused of leading the vigilantes.
SaharaReporters reports that Mrs. Jennifer Johnson, a pregnant housewife from the Obolo neighbourhood of Mbano in Owerri, Imo State, has accused vigilantes of killing her five-year-old son illegally.
Bright Johnson, her husband, is a 33-year-old native doctor.
The community’s youth president, Amaze Chibuke, also known as Jaguar, is accused of leading the vigilantes.
In her petition to the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mrs. Johnson also charged that the community’s youth president had ordered the shooting of her husband’s brother, Okechukwu Johnson, and the arrest of her husband, Bright Johnson, over unspecified charges.
Speaking to reporters, Mrs. Johnson asserted that Chibuke and her husband were embroiled in a land dispute.
She claimed he ordered the shooting of her husband and his younger brother for resisting arrest after breaking into their house with unnamed young people brandishing pump-action pistols.
She said,”My husband was shot in the leg and taken away to an undisclosed location for the last four days. His younger brother was shot in the back and my 5-year-old son was shot dead.”
Mrs. Johnson, who was crying, told reporters that her husband was being held at the DSS office at Irete along Onitsha Road in Owerri, Imo State, following a lot of pressure from family members and her husband’s relatives.
She said,”I’m calling on the DG, DSS and the IG of Police to wade into this matter and save my husband from the killer-squad of Amaze Chibuke popularly called Jaguar. The family have attempted to gain access to my husband several times but the DSS officials have refused. I want to know if my husband is still alive or not. He does not even know that his son has been shot dead.
“My husband is innocent. This is case of disputed family land that is being used to hunt my husband.”
She recounted that on November 9, 2024, while returning from an errand in Obolo, she was harassed by some unidentified males near Amanaku market. This was the beginning of trouble. She claimed that during a police raid, the guys forced her and her five-year-old son into a car.
She said,”When I entered, I noticed that there was a man already in the vehicle tied like a suspect. I was crying that I’m a married woman and innocent. They however started beating the man tied in the vehicle over his plea that they should let me and my son go.
“The three men in the vehicle were on mask and I feared that we have been kidnapped. But when they moved about 10 minutes, they stopped suddenly and asked us to go into the bush. They were being chased by eyewitnesses who observed how they pushed me into their vehicle.
“I was pleading that they should please allow me go. One of the masked men now ordered that we (the three of us – the man we met in the vehicle, my son and I) should be shot but another countered the order and said they should let us go.
“I held onto my son and ran off in the right, while the man ran the other way. On my way back home, the community people stopped me and asked me to come and identify the man that escaped from our abductor’s vehicle. I identified him as the person that was pushed out from the vehicle with us. But it seems they refused to agree.
“When I got home, I told my husband what happened and he immediately went to the police station to report. My husband asked the police to come with him to the scene to avoid the mob applying jungle justice to kill an innocent man. But the police on duty expressed fear due to the lateness of the night.”
A few days following the incident, Mrs. Johnson stated, “some youths of the community came to our house and accused my husband of alleged involvement in my attempted kidnap and abduction of a Rev. Father in Owerri”.
She said,”I was shocked. They claimed the man that was pushed out from the vehicle by those that tried to abduct me fingered my husband. They said the man changed his story and indicted my husband. We later gathered that the man was tied up in a self-styled prison built by Jaguar and compelled to implicate my husband.
“All attempts to get his lawyer to intervene failed as the lawyer, whose office is located along Isiala-Mbano area was compromised and working for the accused youth president. The compromised lawyer collected a million naira from my husband and later demanded for five million to ‘settle the matter’. We refused and reported the matter to Imo State Police headquarters.
“Jaguar later declared my husband wanted dead or alive over matters to be handled by the police. We later reported to the police. The police invited Jaguar and detained him for declaring my husband wanted. But he got bail after some powerful individuals reached out.
“At the police headquarters under the IPO identified as Umeh, both parties were invited on the 24th of December, 2024. But Jaguar failed to show up and the IPO gave another date.
“Three days ago, on the 26th of December, 2024, the youth president of the community, Amaze Chibuke, popularly called Jaguar came to the house with five men in mufti and armed with pump-action guns to arrest my husband over alleged involvement in my kidnapping and that of one Reverend Father in Owerri.
“I held unto Jaguar crying, saying that he should leave my husband alone. My husband’s younger brother was also arguing with them not to take my brother away. The next thing I heard was Jaguar ordering that they should open fire. They shot my husband in the leg, shot my husband’s brother in the back and my five-year-old son, got shot in the head and died.
“My father-in-law rushed out and demanded from Jaguar why he ordered them to shoot, he said the death of my son is not his business. And that we should go to the DSS office to see my husband. We have been to DSS but no way. We don’t even know if he is alive.
“I’m calling on the DSS DG and the Police IG to intervene and save my husband. Jaguar has killed my son and I don’t want to lose my husband too. They should let us know the whereabouts of my husband and investigate these incidents. My husband is innocent. This is case of disputed family land that is being used to haunt my husband.”
Chibuke refused to reply when SaharaReporters asked him how he felt about the accusations.
He answered the phone for a few seconds when SaharaReporters called, listened to the questions, and then quickly hung up, then turned off his cell phone.
However, ASP Henry Okoye, the state police command’s Police Public Relations Officer, claimed he was unaware of the occurrence. But he promised to find the source of the problem.
“I am not aware of this matter; you are just informing me now. But one thing I can assure you is that I’m going to take it up,”he said.
“This is a criminal case that must not be swept under the carpet and I’m pretty sure that the commissioner of police is going to do everything possible within the law to ensure that the victims get the justice they deserve in this case, if the things you told me are true.
“I’m going to monitor this case closely and ensure that it is not compromised. It is something that will not be tolerated.”
Please don’t forget to “Allow the notification” so you will be the first to get our gist when we publish it.
Drop your comment in the section below, and don’t forget to share the post.
