In the last five years, a troubling pattern has emerged across Nigeria’s South-East. Violent crimes, political assassinations, communal killings, and controversial arrests are frequently and swiftly linked by security agencies to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), often before detailed investigations are concluded.
However, interviews with families of victims, retired police officers, human rights advocates, lawyers, and examination of police documents reveal a deeper crisis inside Nigeria’s criminal justice system. Hurried narratives, weak investigations, political pressure, and alleged police misconduct have combined to obscure accountability in some of the region’s most controversial killings.
At the centre of this investigation is the assassination of Labour Party senatorial candidate for Enugu East, Chief Oyibo Chukwu. His murder, days before the 2023 general election, shocked the country. More than three years later, his family insists justice has been buried under what they describe as a deliberate police cover-up and politically motivated deflection.
The Killing That Changed Enugu’s Political Atmosphere
On the night of February 22, 2023, barely 48 hours before Nigeria’s presidential and National Assembly elections, gunmen ambushed and killed Oyibo Chukwu at Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu South Local Government Area. The assailants shot him alongside his aides and set their vehicle ablaze.
Late Chukwu
The late politician, a former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Oji River Branch, was the Labour Party candidate for the Enugu East Senatorial District and was widely considered a strong challenger to former Enugu governor and then-senator, Chimaroke Nnamani. The murder sent shockwaves through the state.
At the time, Labour Party leaders alleged that political opponents threatened by the party’s growing popularity were behind coordinated attacks targeting opposition figures. Then-Labour Party governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga, said party members had become targets of systematic violence.
But within hours of the attack, the Enugu State Police Command publicly linked the killing to “IPOB/ESN renegades.”
In a statement, the police spokesperson, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, said preliminary investigation showed that armed hoodlums operating in tricycles and Hilux vehicles attacked political targets, claiming the assailants were “subversive criminal elements suspected to be IPOB/ESN renegades.”
No evidence was publicly presented at the time.
For the Chukwu family, that immediate attribution remains one of the most disturbing aspects of the case.
“The Government Knows What Happened,” Family Speaks
Speaking in an interview with SaharaReporters, the younger brother of the late Oyibo Chukwu, Chief Lucky Chukwu, accused the police of abandoning genuine investigation while shielding powerful interests.
“Nothing is going on,” he said. “It is the same security agencies that we have, especially the police.”
He alleged that security deployment around the area where his brother was killed was mysteriously withdrawn shortly before the attack.
“How can you withdraw a combined team of soldiers and mobile policemen guarding that axis a day before they killed him?” he asked. “It had never happened before.”
Lucky also noted that the governor did not issue a statement condemning the killing, but when another politician, Dons Udeh, was killed, he rushed to the family and gave them ₦5 million.
The family believes the case was deliberately redirected toward IPOB to avoid scrutiny of possible political motives.
“They know what happened to my elder brother,” Lucky insisted. “We are still pursuing justice, and we have involved the DSS so that the investigation can be clinical.”
A Pattern Beyond Oyibo Chukwu
Late Udeh
The controversy surrounding Oyibo Chukwu’s murder is not isolated. A review of several criminal cases across the South-East reveals repeated allegations that police authorities invoke IPOB/ESN narratives prematurely, sometimes in circumstances where later evidence appears inconsistent with the original claims.
One such case involved Chief Dons Udeh, a former governorship aspirant in Enugu State. Udeh was abducted in April 2023 and later found dead near 9th Mile area of Enugu. His mobile phone was reportedly discovered in front of the Ogui Police Station. Despite public outrage and protests demanding justice, the case faded without resolution.
Similarly, in January 2022, gunmen invaded a political meeting in Obeagu Awkunanaw and killed two APC chieftains, including the party’s state youth leader, Kelvin Ezeoha. His widow, Mrs. Chidimma, in an interview, stated that after four years and five months, her husband’s killers have not been brought to justice. She said she was convinced his killing was politically motivated.
Late Ezeoha
She narrated how one Mike Ogbonna, a factional local government chairman of APC in Enugu South council area, had repeatedly called her husband to come to their meeting venue on that fateful day. According to the 38-year-old widow and mother of four, her late husband was preparing to attend a family meeting when Ogbonna came to their house with two other persons.
They engaged him in a lengthy discussion before they left. No arrests or successful prosecutions followed.
In July 2021, Professor Samuel Ndubisi, Director General of the Science Equipment Development Institute (SEDI), was assassinated alongside his police orderly along Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. Again, no known resolution emerged publicly.
Late Prof Ndubisi
Families of victims and rights advocates say these unresolved cases have deepened public distrust in law enforcement.
Mr. Christian Chukwu, 64, the traditional Prime Minister of Ugboka in Nkanu East LGA, was kidnapped from his house on November 19, 2021. Despite the payment of a N4.5 million ransom, his whereabouts have remained a mystery. His wife, Mrs. Ukamaka Chukwu, told Saharareporters that life has been hellish since the incident.
She narrated how six armed men invaded their house, demanded his car key, and pushed him inside the car before zooming off. The kidnappers demanded N50 million, later reducing it to N4.5 million. She raised the money, but after a harrowing experience involving changing drop-off locations, a masked man collected the ransom and asked her to leave. Her husband was never released.
His son, Chukwu James, revealed that he had reported to the police, but the operatives failed to act promptly, allowing the kidnappers to escape.
The family of His Royal Highness, Igwe Donald Nwochi of Etiti-Ozalla Autonomous in Nkanu West LGA, has also not located their breadwinner since December 24, 2021, when he was abducted by unknown men in police uniform from his hotel. The family paid a N2.5 million ransom, yet his whereabouts remain unknown. His son, Prince Chisom Nwochi, said they reported the incident to various police divisions and commands, but the authorities appeared unconcerned and no result has been achieved.
Igwe Donald Nwochi
Police Documents Raise Questions
Documents obtained by SaharaReporters further expose how criminal allegations in the South-East are sometimes downgraded or reframed after prolonged investigations. One such document is a confidential police investigation report issued by the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Unit of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja, dated February 17, 2026.
The report concerned allegations of promoting communal war, unlawful possession of firearms, robbery, and threats to life involving parties from the Edem Nru community in Nsukka LGA.
After months of investigation, the police concluded that the matter was merely a civil land dispute already before the High Court. The report stated that the complainants failed to establish criminal allegations. This illustrates concerns that severe criminal allegations are often invoked in local disputes, only for investigations to collapse later.
“Police Now Hide Everything Under IPOB” – Retired CSP
A retired Chief Superintendent of Police and lawyer, Chidi Ezenwa, told SaharaReporters that security agencies increasingly use IPOB narratives as shortcuts for weak investigations.
“When a police force becomes more political than practical, they move away from their core values,” he said. “In the course of investigating crimes, almost every violent incident became attributed to IPOB activities.”
According to him, many politically motivated killings and communal crimes had no logical connection to separatist agitation.
“Oyibo Chukwu’s case, if properly investigated, would likely trace back to political and community interests,” he argued. “Dons Udeh also had political disputes. IPOB had no known issue with these individuals.”
Ezenwa said genuine criminal investigations require evidence-based policing rather than broad security labels.
He criticised deployment strategies in which officers unfamiliar with local languages and cultural dynamics are assigned to volatile regions.
“Policing is local,” he explained. “You need officers who understand the terrain, culture, and people. Otherwise, they misread conflicts and rely on lazy narratives.”
Human Rights Groups Document Disturbing Trends
Human rights lawyer and Executive Director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Okechukwu Nwanguma, said the misuse of IPOB narratives has become deeply concerning. He cited multiple cases documented by his organisation.
In the case of Onuoha Johnbosco, he was arrested openly at his printing shop in Imo State by operatives posing as customers. Police allegedly denied holding him before later claiming he died during a gun battle and branding him an IPOB operative. Family members and eyewitnesses dispute that narrative.
Late Onuoha Johnbosco
In the case of Thaddeus Ojokoh, he was publicly paraded as one of the gunmen responsible for attacks on police in Okpala, Imo State. But later evidence allegedly showed he had already been in police custody at the time of the attack. After public pressure, police quietly charged him in court and later abandoned the case.
Japheth Njoku was arrested and detained at the notorious Tiger Base facility in Imo State. Police later claimed he died from illness. The family denied access to him while extortion allegedly continued. A coroner ordered an autopsy, but police failed to produce the body.
Late Japheth Njoku
In April 2026, Kenneth Anyanwu was reportedly shot by police despite later confirmation by a traditional ruler that he was innocent. There were also allegations that officers extorted N47,000 from him.
Kenneth Anyanwu sits in a hospital bed after being abandoned by police following the shooting
Nwanguma warned that poor investigative standards are fuelling injustice across the South-East. He said basic investigative procedures are frequently ignored, crime scenes are not preserved, forensic analysis is absent, and suspects are denied legal representation.
He noted that there is a dangerous overreliance on confessional statements, many obtained under questionable circumstances.
“When security narratives are weaponised, communities lose trust and real perpetrators may never be identified,” he said.
Tiger Base And Allegations Of Torture
Many of the allegations documented in the South-East centre around Tiger Base, a controversial police tactical facility in Imo State, repeatedly accused of torture, extortion, and unlawful detention. One recent case involved former military officer Magnus Ejiogu.
According to petitions, Ejiogu was arrested over the 2022 killing of a traditional ruler. His family alleged he was detained incommunicado, tortured, and denied access to lawyers.
The petition claimed police ignored individuals already linked publicly to the killing and instead targeted unrelated community members. The family stated, “This is terrible, and we want independent investigators to take over the matter.”
Political Violence Or Separatist Violence?
Security experts warned that collapsing every violent incident into IPOB narratives risks obscuring the complex realities of crime in the South-East. Many killings involve political rivalries, cult violence, communal disputes, land conflicts, and organised criminal networks. But the IPOB label has become a convenient catch-all explanation.
Retired CSP Ezenwa explained, “Agitation is agitation; crime is crime. Even if agitators commit crimes, separate the actual offence from the political narrative and investigate properly.”
He argued that indiscriminate use of IPOB labels has also allowed criminal actors to exploit confusion, as criminals hide under that umbrella to commit offences.
The Cost Of Weak Investigations
Legal practitioners say weak investigations undermine both justice and security. They warn that weak, lazy, and highly compromised police investigations are systematically undermining national security, subverting the rule of law, and destroying innocent lives.
An Enugu-based legal practitioner, Ede Gerald Moses, pointed out that politically sensitive cases suffer from “investigative contamination,” where a biased mindset among investigators dooms a case from its inception. He warned that once investigators adopt a preferred narrative too early, they stop looking objectively at motives, suspects, and forensic evidence.
The President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Chief Afam Osigwe (SAN), stated that blaming citizens for crimes without irrefutable facts constitutes a grave abuse of due process. He strongly condemned the police tactic of fabricating allegations out of institutional laziness or prejudice.
“The police should not hide under any prevalent sentiment… to justify unlawful detention of persons,” Osigwe insisted.
Professor Gab Agu Gab, a senior law lecturer at ESUT, highlighted societal constraints, noting that ordinary residents are often too terrified to volunteer vital eyewitness testimony to the police due to fear of violent retaliation. He also pointed to internal institutional corruption, noting that local police divisions are routinely compromised by their relationships with shady “police informants.”
He recommended that high-profile investigations be escalated to the office of the Inspector General of Police in Abuja.
In a passionate reflection, a former Attorney General of Imo State, Professor Francis Idike (SAN), regretted the systemic criminalization of the Igbo people under the guise of state security operations. He argued that innocent youths are regularly murdered or kept in unauthorized custody without genuine investigation.
“It is just a question of give a dog a bad name to hang it,” Idike lamented, defending IPOB against the blanket “terrorist” classification. He turned his fury on South-East political leaders, describing them as “toothless bulldogs” who remain silent in the face of state-sanctioned abuses.
Families Still Waiting For Justice
For families of victims like Oyibo Chukwu, the unresolved questions remain deeply painful. An associate of the late politician, Barr. Festus Ede, queried why previous assassination attempts were ignored, why security was withdrawn, and why investigations stalled after IPOB narratives emerged. Three years later, there are still no public answers.
Meanwhile, the political atmosphere in the South-East remains tense, with unresolved assassinations, custodial deaths, and allegations of police misconduct continuing to fuel distrust.
As calls for police reform grow louder, experts insist that restoring public confidence will require professional investigations, transparent accountability, and a willingness to separate political narratives from criminal evidence.
Efforts by SaharaReporters to reach the Nigeria Police Force spokesperson, Anthony Okon Placid, for comments were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls or a message sent to his mobile phone.