By Ebuka Onyekwelu
I saw Hon. Onyedikachukwu Ike, hereafter referred to as “Synod,” member-elect for Nnewi North, in one of the offices in the Assembly Complex. Earlier, while I was catching up with a member, I saw three unmarked vehicles enter the complex, and I tried to know who that was to no avail. I couldn’t easily dictate the convoy, which was unusual. I later saw that they came for the mission of whisking Synod away.
I and Synod were catching up in that office and from there walked down into the Clerk of the House and had some heartwarming pleasantries with her. We just finished talking with the clerk, and as she stepped out, some men surrounded both of us (Synod and myself) and then, picked him. I was like, “wow”!! So, I went straight and told the speaker. Called some people within the complex and alerted them. All within a minute. The clerk, seeing what just happened, went down and raised alarm, and immediately, the gates of the House were locked.
You can not come into the Assembly to abduct someone. It is impossible. There is no where it is tenable in any kind of democracy.
The House security showed utmost professionalism. They refused to be moved. Members of the Assembly gathered immediately, the staff of the House, the media, everyone came out and insisted that they must free him. The Speaker came down and was angry, saying that he must be freed, then appealed for calm before it degenerates into chaos. This was on for about a few minutes, before the Deputy Governor came for the valedictory session and ran into the absurdity. The Deputy Governor said the same thing, that the young man be freed. Having no option, they grudgingly freed him and left.
The biggest shame is that the atrocious attempt to abduct a member-elect was connected to a fellow Nnewi man, Chief Ibeto, whom, it was reported earlier, had secured an arrest warrant or whatever on Synod. Armed with this information, people just wanted to know what was the case. “What did he do?” So many querried. “Did he kill someone?”, they querried further in a haste to know why he must be abducted. It was shocking and insane trying to make such an extremely embarrassing situation look ordinary in the name of a certain comunal land dispute or feud between Chief Ibeto and Sen. Ubah, like in the popular narrative of fight between two elephants, which the gass pays for. They don’t seem to understand it.
It was a monumental disgrace, for want of words. I felt so sad trying to explain to people that it was a family issue taken too far.
Many wondered how come a man of Ibeto’s stature is chasing the small boy about? To that, I had no answers.
After my recovery from the shock and confusion, I came to the conclusion that I have to put this on record for posterity.
