Inspector General of Police (IG) Kayode Egbetokun has been urged by a coalition of civil society organizations in Ebonyi State to launch an investigation into claims that House of Representatives member Chinedu Ogah used armed thugs to intimidate and harass some of his constituents in Ikwo Local Government Area.
A number of appeals to police authorities regarding the actions of Ogah, who represents Ezza South/Ikwo Federal Constituency in the House, had stagnated for months, according to the coalition chaired by Prof. Joseph Agbo, making the call imperative.
The group accused the congressman of land-grabbing and illegal gun possession in one of the petitions.
Friday Alefia, a journalist, and Chisom Achor, a Tik-toker, were among the indigenous people of the constituency recorded as being incarcerated after being detained and charged by the police at Ogah’s request. Paul Nweke and Chinonso Imeba, Achor’s brother, are among the others.
The group, which consists of four civil society organizations—the Human Rights Volunteer Corps, HRVC, Human Rights Action Group, Center for the Defense of Human Rights, CDHR, and Good Living Initiative—added that some others had been forced to leave their communities in order to avoid becoming victims of the lawmaker’s goons.
The group’s attorneys, Ede S. Ede & Co., sent a petition dated November 25, 2025, to IG Egbetokun and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas on behalf of Emeka Kingsley, Nweke Chidi, and others.
“It is our client’s brief that they have seen evil and what appears to be a permanent life in hell fire in the hands of Honourable Chinedu Ogah,” the petition stated in part. According to our clients, Hon. Chinedu Nweke Ogah’s conduct and behaviors are not only horrible but also a case of the timid “might is right” mentality.
“Our clients claim that Hon. Chinedu Nweke Ogah, who feels untouchable and has repeatedly boasted that not even the Inspector General of Police can question his activities because he is his personal friend, displays firearms with live ammunition and shoots without control.”
“Our clients claim that Hon. Chinedu Nweke Ogah finds it extremely enjoyable to oppress the poor and any dissenting voice, particularly when the person or people refuse to pay the illegal levy that Chinedu Ogah frequently uses his cronies to levy on the downtrodden in the Amagu and other communities in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, or when the person refuses to surrender his land (s) for Hon. Chinedu Ogah to grab.”
The coalition called on the relevant authorities to promptly utilize their good offices to conduct a covert inquiry into the claims, listing 46 people—including the deceased—as victims of the lawmaker’s purported reign of terror.
Last week, the coalition denounced Ogah’s widespread attacks on free expression. Ogah has been in the spotlight for detaining people who criticize him on social media in police cells and correctional facilities.
Additionally, the group chastised Prof. Awo Nwaobashi, a state commissioner currently in office, for reportedly ordering the torture of a journalist by Neighborhood Watch members. In recent appearances on radio and television, the coalition’s leader, Agbo, reaffirmed that while the group does not condone character defamation, cyberbullying, or cyberstalking of any kind, among other things, the accusations made against Ogah were too serious to be ignored by the relevant authorities.
Alefia, whose case was referred to a Federal High Court, was explicitly mentioned by Agbo, a philosophy professor at Ebonyi State University. He said that the prosecutor was fined N50,000 by the judge for trying to prevent him from being granted bail.
He stated that “as long as there are laws in our land, even if one commits murder, the laws have provided for how such a person should be handled according to law” was the group’s main worry.
“As a coalition, we have never and will never condone cyberbullying of any individual. However, under military rule, we do not want the cybercrime laws to become another Public Officers Protection Against False Accusation Decree Number 2. The coalition leader continued, “We are concerned that the cybercrimes law seems to be slipping into that Decree.”
We are arguing that none of these individuals were arrested by Hon. Ogah. The police did. None of them were brought before these courts by Hon. Ogah. And so did the police.
These matters are being heard by the judiciary. However, the point we are trying to make is: Why do you arrest someone for cyberbullying or defamation, handcuff him like a regular criminal, and then leave him at the station for weeks, days, or even months in the case of Friday Alefia? Why would you send a cyberbullying case to a magistrate court?
