The last is yet to be heard in the case of an Alor community man who was reportedly buried alive in 2022 by his kinsmen. Going by the reports reaching us, the man, Chief Olisa Igbonwa, allegedly resurrected and went to the Anambra State House of Assemby to confront the brother, Hon. Uzoma Igbonwa.
According to an eyewitness, the event took place last Thursday 23rd February, 2024. It was alleged that Chief Uzoma Igbonwa collapsed upon seeing Olisa, his buried brother causing a commotion in the esteemed chamber of the Anambra State House of Assembly.
A reliable source disclosed that the confrontation stemmed from Olisa’s demand for certain property documents belonging to their late father, which Uzoma had allegedly concealed from his siblings while taking possession of the said properties.
Going further, it was reported that Olisa accused Uzoma of failing to repay a substantial sum of $45,000 he had sent to him during his stay in Switzerland. Chief Uzoma has been accused of being the mastermind behind the prolonged Igweship crisis in the town.
As a way to douse the tension, Uzoma initiated damage control by using some media outlets. He alleged that the town’s traditional ruler, Igwe Mac-Anthony Okonkwo, hired thugs to attack him at the State House of Assembly where he had previously lodged a petition against the traditional ruler regarding the decade-long crisis.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that the petition presented to the Anambra State House of Assembly against Igwe Mac-Anthony Okonkwo by Chief Uzoma Igbonwa was summarily dismissed by the house, accompanied by a stern warning to Uzoma and his associates to refrain from spreading rumors.
It will be recalled that in September 2023, the same group of people, led by Chief Uzoma Igbonwa and his embattled PG Chief Emmanuel Ojukwu, sent another fictitious letter to the Anambra State Attorney General, claiming that Igwe Mac-Anthony Okonkwo had been sacked by the courts and should not be allowed to perform the annual New Yam Festival of the town {IWA JI ALOR}.
It took a strongly worded letter from Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, the Igwe Mac-Anthony’s lawyer, who promptly wrote to the Anambra Attorney General to clear the air concerning the fictitious and deceptive petition.
Additionally, the Alor Peace and Reconciliation Committee, set up to mediate in the decade-long crisis, has indicted the Uzoma Igbonwa-led group for rejecting the harmonized and consensus selection done in February 2022. The peace move was supervised by the Anambra State Commissioner for Local Government Matters and Chieftaincy Affairs, which is supposed to bring peace to the town.
Investigation by The NationGuardNews revealed that the bone of contention was taking of ‘Ichie Ngene’ title which Olisa was bent on taking. To avoid him doing that, some elders in the community allegedly engineered declared him dead by carrying a coffin round the town to be his. They went to a forest and buried the mock coffin and sent a video that went viral to signify that Chief Olisa Igbonwa had died and was buried in his attempt to take the chieftaincy title. Thus the town was thrown into confusion and crisis especially as the rumoured person to have been buried alive appeared and seen in the community.
The video claimed that the elders of the community met and took a decision to bury and mourn Igbonwa alive for taking ‘Ichie Ngene’ title by himself in the community.
Igbonwa was alleged to have taken the chieftaincy title as Ichie Ngene, a decision the community felt was not within his right, leading to a mock burial conducted on him by the elders of the community.
Rumours have been flying that Igbonwa was in a casket taken around the community by the elders and buried in a forest.
Chief Olisa was at the office of the Anambra Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga. He said, contrary to wish and desire of some of his kinsmen, that he is not only alive but would complete the taking of the Ichie title, irrespective of the threat to be buried alive.
He claimed that he he received a chieftaincy title from HRM, Igwe Mac-Anthony Okonkwo Igwe Alor but was threatened by one Mr Uzoma Igbonwa and others to renounce the chieftaincy title within 30 days or face dire consequences.
DSP Ikenga has declared the said publication and the video clip as false and misleading. “The attention of Anambra State Police Command has been drawn to a trending video clip and online publication credited to one Ifeoma Okeke of Umunna TV that one Chief Olisa Igbonwa was buried alive in Alor, Anambra State by the elders of Okebunoye village, Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State and that the elders met and took a decision to bury and mourn Mr Igbonwa alive for taking ‘Ichie Ngene’ title by himself in the community.
“The publication is not only false but also misleading. The Command wishes to state that Olisa Igbonwa is alive and was never buried alive as alleged in the publication.
“Consequently, the Command received a formal complaint from one Chief Olisa Igbonwa that he received a chieftaincy title from HRM Igwe Alor but was threatened by one Mr Uzoma Igbonwa and others to renounce the chieftaincy title within 30 days or he will face dare consequences.
“Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police CP Echeng Echeng has ordered for discreet investigation into the matter and to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident in order to bring perpetrators to book.”
The statement added that the CP urged members of the public, especially the press to always cross-check their facts before publication in order not to mislead the public.
The Police authority disclosed that investigation on the matter has been ongoing and that further details would be communicated to the public.
