Recall that Adagba, an Abakaliki Legal Practitioner, has filed a petition against the Deputy Speaker, Onah, and the Regent of Umuogudu Oshia Autonomous Community in Ohaukwu local government area, Prince Uchenna Aliega over the recent ban of the masquerade parade in markets and major roads in the area.
to the Inspector General of Police and the National leader of the Nigeria Bar Association and also copied to the Ebonyi State Chapter of the union, appealed for the quick intervention of Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State and security agents to reverse the threatening excesses of some stakeholders and groups in Ngbo, especially relating to practices of the people's inherited cultural heritage to promote peace and unity among them.
He accused the Deputy Speaker of threatening his life for appearing as the lawyer to the Omebe Ogene Masquerade Group facing litigation on an alleged unlawful masquerade parade.
But while reacting to the development,
The state lawmaker, Chinedu Onah said the ban against masquerades parading along major roads and markets in the area by Ngbo Leaders Council to curtail the excesses of some masquerades in the area whose activities were highjacked by suspected criminal elements to intimidate and dispossess people of their valuables.
Onah said some members of the Omebe Ogene Masquerade Group including Emmanuel Eze Ebenyi, James Awoke, Ifeanyi Onwe, and others who are accused of flouting the directive of Ngbo Leaders Council not to parade masquerade in Okwo Ngbo market were arrested by the state Police Command headquarters who are handling the case over their refusal to yield to the intervention of some stakeholders to resolve the dispute amicably at home.
Onah said he was never against the practice of the rich cultural heritage of the Ngboejiogu Clan, but people should not, because of their own preferred culture, hinder the human rights of others in any area of human endeavors within Ngbo and beyond for the interest of all.
Corroborating, the Regent of Umuogudu Oshia Community, Prince Uche Aliega who also denied his involvement in the alleged abduction attempt and threat to the life of Barrister Christopher Adagba Aja, stressed that he intervened on the day the accused Omebe Ogene masquerades were arrested for flaunting the order of masquerade parade in Okwo by Ngbo leadership as masquerade from his community to resolve the matter.
Prince Aliega, who blamed the masquerade crisis on the excesses of some individuals who had ignored the norms and ethics of traditional practices as it was done in the olden days, noted that the leadership of Umuogudu Oshia and Ngboejiogu in general, are disposed to reconciliation if the accused persons could repent and reciprocate to peace offer initially provided to them.
It could be recalled that the lawyer while briefing newsmen yesterday in Abakaliki said: "Section twenty-one of the country's1999 constitution part "A" directs that the state shall protect, preserve and promote the Nigeria cultures which elevate human dignity and are consistent with the fundamental objectives."
He observed that despite the huge cultural heritage of the Ngboejiogu Clan, the reckless action of masquerades in the area especially the ones paraded by youths who may not have had inclination with any of the masquerade groups or undergone proper traditional initiation rituals to qualify him to parade masquerade has contributed greatly to the cause of this prevailing disputes in the area.
He expressed displeasure over the alleged threat against his life by Onah and Aliega for serving as the barrister defending the accused clients, the Omebe Ogene Masquerade Group, in the court of law.
Adagba alleged that his clients who are members of Omebe Ogene Masquerade Group duly registered with the state government since 1996 including Emmanuel Eze Ebenyi, James Awoke, Ifeanyi Onwe, and others were attacked and inflicted severe injuries on 10th June 2024 by a group of hooligans allegedly led by the Deputy Speaker, Onah and their community Reagent, Uche Aliega.
This incident according to him took place after the masquerade in a group traditionally visited the Ngbo Major Market known as Okwo for a peaceful procession to offer kolanuts to elders who also have a base in the market as demanded by Ngbo culture to signal signing-off for their latest Omebe or Ugwoke year which comes once in every three years.
He added that their contemporaries, known as the Odo masquerade exhibit in the other separate opposite year as culturally demanded after the procession on their way back to the masquerade reserved forest at Ogene village Umuogudu Oshia Ngbo.
Barrister Adagba maintained that as a legal practitioner, he had an obligation to provide services to any client who needed him; and alleged that after the efforts by elders to resolve the dispute amicably were rejected by the Deputy Speaker and his group.
He noted that his clients had been in pain due to injuries they sustained in the attack after spending seven days in police detention and had no option than to institute civil litigation against the Onah, Aliega, and their cohorts at the Federal High Court for enforcement of their fundamental human right for choice of religious worship and obligation.
He said that while the first hearing of the matter is coming up on 30th October 2024, at Federal High Court Abakaliki, the Deputy Speaker and his group in few days ago re-arrested his clients late in the night, bundled and detained them in the Ebonyi State Police Command headquarters in Abakaliki from where they were charged to the state magistrate court and reminded in prison.
According to the lawyer, while he was arranging to go to court for their defense a team of four policemen he suspected was part of a security convoy of the Deputy Speaker invaded his residential home at about four o'clock early in the morning claiming that they were instructed by the state Commissioner of Police to bring him to the state police command headquarters without proper identification and disagreed with his position to report later in the morning that it was too early to be taking away by that time.
He alleged that the police rather forced him to their vehicle in the presence of the residents of the apartment, who were awoken by the emerging harsh voices with only a short nicker and casual clothes on his body and drove out.
"Surprisedly, instead of driving me to the state police headquarters, they diverted to Enugu/Abakaliki expressway from where they branched at Ukwuachi and took me to a faraway Ezza North at the unknown area," he alleged.
He equally alleged that after a series of intimidation in the vehicle, they later dumped him at the Liberation Estate police post along the Enugu/Abakaliki expressway without any statement to the officers on duty.
The legal practitioner said no law in the Ebonyi state constitution nor internal security law in the area had classified a masquerade procession or being a member of a masquerade group as a criminal offense or a cultist activity.
