A Lagos-based civil society organisation, the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police over the arrest and continued detention of two Imo State residents, alleging that officers of the Force Intelligence Department (FID) are being used to frustrate an ongoing police investigation and a pending court case.
In a petition dated 25 July 2026 and signed by its Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, RULAAC accused FID officers of arbitrarily arresting Engr. Leonard Uzoma and Mr Ndubuisi Uchehara, two officials of a residential estate in Imo State, and transporting them from Owerri to Enugu and onward to Abuja without clear lawful justification.
According to the petition, the case traces back to 29 June 2026, when Uzoma’s lawyers, Credo Legal, wrote to the Commissioner of Police in Imo State alleging that officers of the Special Protection Unit (SPU), Base 9, Umuahia, had assaulted Uzoma, torn his clothes, humiliated him and his wife, and fired tear gas inside his residential compound, exposing his children to distress. The officers were said to have acted at the instigation of Michael Igbo, an estate developer with whom Uzoma had clashed over an electricity connection.
The Imo State Police Command’s X-Squad Unit opened an investigation into that complaint, and Uzoma gave a statement on 2 July 2026. Igbo, however, reportedly failed to honour two separate invitations to appear before the unit, including a rescheduled date of 24 July 2026. Uzoma separately filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit against Igbo at the Imo State High Court, with a hearing listed for 28 July 2026.
While those processes were still pending, the petition states, the transformer supplying power to the estate went missing. Uzoma, in his capacity as the estate’s secretary, and Uchehara, the estate chairman, reported the theft to police. Estate security guards were subsequently arrested, and one reportedly told investigators that Igbo had removed the transformer at about 4 a.m.
Police then invited Uzoma and Uchehara to Command headquarters in Owerri on 24 July 2026 to give statements on the missing transformer. RULAAC alleges that, on arriving at the headquarters, the two men were instead intercepted and arrested by FID officers on suspicion of transformer vandalism — an action the group says was instigated by Igbo himself, rather than the X-Squad Unit that was already investigating the assault complaint against him.
The petition further alleges that Igbo had the matter transferred to the FID in Abuja instead of submitting to the existing investigation by the Imo Command. Uzoma and Uchehara were taken from Owerri to Enugu, where they spent the night of 24 July in detention, and were, as of 25 July, being moved by road toward Abuja while still in custody.
RULAAC described the sequence of events as raising “grave concerns” about abuse of police powers and the use of force to advance a private dispute against a complainant. The group is asking the Inspector-General to order the immediate release of the two men absent credible lawful grounds for holding them, review the circumstances of their arrest and transfer, investigate the conduct of the FID officers involved, examine whether Igbo influenced the FID’s intervention, ensure the X-Squad’s original assault investigation proceeds without interference, and discipline any officer found to have acted improperly.
The petition has been addressed to the Inspector-General of Police at the Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja. There has been no public response yet from the Nigeria Police Force or from Michael Igbo. #Securitynewsalert.com
