Women protest cleric’s arrest inside Enugu church

Hundreds of elderly women from Ogbozinne Akpugo, a community in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu state, yesterday, protested the arrest of a cleric, Reverend Kenneth Okafor.
The priest attached to Emmanuel Methodist Church, Ogbozinne, was reportedly arrested by heavily armed policemen said to be attached to Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad (F-SARS) in the church on September 14, 2018.
Rev Okafor is alleged to have been arrested in connection with Police investigation into the killing of Ogbozinne Akpugo traditional ruler, Igwe Steven Nwatu, by a mob on June 11, 2018.
Blueprint gathered that the priest was billed to appear, yesterday September 17, before a judicial panel of inquiry set up by the Enugu state government on the killing of the monarch, however, he was arrested before the date.
The women, who marched through some streets in the Enugu metropolis in protest of the cleric’s arrest, lamented that the whereabouts of Rev Okafor was unknown.
The women also raised the alarm over what they described as the ‘indiscriminate’ arrest and detention of members of the Ogbozinne Akpugo community by security agents over the monarch’s death.
Leader of the protesters, Mrs Rebecca Edeh, said only aged women and children are left in the village as a result of the ‘siege’ by the security agents.
According to her, the priest and other members of the community were arrested in a bid to stop them from testifying at the public hearing being held by the judicial panel of inquiry.
Some of the placards displayed by the women read: ‘Give us fair hearing at the judicial panel of inquiry’; ‘Our witnesses are arrested and detained by Police to avoid giving evidence’; ‘Stop arrest and detention of Ogbozinne people; allow us to testify at the panel of inquiry’; among others