Abia Kingship Row Turns Into A Police Power Test
A fresh storm has broken out in Abia State. An academic technologist at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Ifeanyi Kenneth Nwaji, is at the center of the issue. He is popularly known as Aluta Sultan. Nwaji accused Apostle Chibuzor Gift Chinyere of weaponising police power against him. The dispute is over a kingship issue in Ohanku Ndoki.
The allegation surfaced in a SaharaReporters report published on 18 March 2026. It has pushed an already tense traditional leadership row into the centre of Nigeria’s law enforcement and human rights debate.
At the heart of the controversy is a simple but combustible question of authority. Nwaji says he challenged Chinyere. He described it as Chinyere’s attempt to project himself as king of more than one autonomous community.
Chinyere, founder of Omega Power Ministries, is already publicly documented as the person who founded OPM. Reports in March 2024 said that Abia State Governor Alex Otti presented him with a staff of office. He was presented as the traditional ruler of Ikwu Orie Ohanku Ndoki Autonomous Community.
How A Traditional Question Became A Police Matter
According to Nwaji’s account, the dispute began as a community disagreement but later escalated into petitioning, police invitations and detention.
He claims that after he and others resisted Chinyere’s alleged reach into Okotoko, officers linked to the IGP. The Monitoring Unit began moving against him.
His account, if accurate, would suggest a troubling blurring of lines between a local chieftaincy dispute and state coercive power.
The concern is greater because the police leadership is transitioning. This change is noted on the force’s own website.
A Nigeria Police Force press release dated 25 February 2026 says Olatunji Ridwan Disu assumed duty as acting Inspector-General of Police. However, another official police page still lists Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun as incumbent in other sections of the site.
In other words, even the formal police record appears unsettled.
The complaint also names Akin Fakorede. The Guardian reported in June 2025 that he was the head of the IGP Monitoring Unit in Abuja.
That is important because the allegation is not merely that a private citizen complained to police. It is that, according to Nwaji, a highly placed police unit allegedly became an instrument in a community power struggle.
Fakorede, in a separate Guardian report, demanded evidence when confronted with other accusations against him.
Why The Detention Allegation Matters
If the allegations are established, the case would raise serious constitutional and procedural questions.
Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution guarantees personal liberty. It requires that an arrested or detained person be informed in writing within 24 hours. The person must be made aware of the facts and grounds of their arrest or detention.
The Administration of Criminal Justice Act states that criminal justice authorities must protect suspects’ rights and interests. They must also ensure a fair and efficient process.
That matters because Nwaji alleges that he was not treated as a suspect in a conventional criminal matter, but as a man to be pressured into submission.
He says he was invited. He was threatened and pursued. Later, he was detained after declining to make peace on terms he regarded as humiliating.
He further alleges that money changed hands during the process and that he was moved between jurisdictions in suspicious circumstances.
Those claims remain allegations, but they are grave enough to demand an independent review rather than a closed institutional shrug.
Chinyere Pushes Back
Chinyere has denied the core implication that he is trying to seize Okotoko’s throne.
In the account published on 18 March 2026, he said it is impossible for one person to be king of two communities at the same time. He insisted he is king of Ikwuorie, not Okotoko.
He also argued that the Okotoko community only invited him to assist until it chooses its own king.
He further claimed that Nwaji had been cyberbullying him for four years. He stated the real issue is defamation, not monarchy.
In his version of events, the dispute is not about state persecution but about a sustained online campaign against his name and office.
He also said he is prepared to forgive those involved. This will happen only after a public apology video is made. It must be posted on the same platform used to attack him.
The Bigger Picture For Abia And The Police
This case is bigger than one cleric, one academic technologist, or one village throne. It sits at the intersection of three volatile Nigerian fault lines.
First is the fragility of traditional authority in a state where communities jealously guard their autonomous status.
Second is the growing tendency of public disputes to spill into social media before they reach the courts.
Third is the persistent allegation that police power can be bent by influence, money or proximity to powerful figures.
That is why the most sensible course now is not noise but scrutiny. If the complaint is true, the police must explain the basis for the arrest and detention. They must clarify the legal status of the case file. Additionally, they should confirm whether due process was followed.
If the complaint is false or inflated, then the accuser must also answer for any defamatory or malicious claims.
Either way, the matter is no longer just a village quarrel. It is a test of whether the law in Abia State still stands above personality, patronage and fear.
For now, the facts that can be pinned down are these. Chinyere is publicly known as the founder of OPM. She was presented with a staff of office in 2024 as traditional ruler of Ikwu Orie Ohanku Ndoki Autonomous Community.
The police website now carries a transition in leadership. A man from the same community says people hunted, detained and threatened him. He resisted what he describes as an unlawful kingship claim.
The next move should come from an impartial probe, not from social media applause.
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