King, driver arrested over communal crisis, stealing of baby

The lingering crisis rocking Abavo Kingdom in Ika axis of Delta State has assumed a dangerous dimension.
The monarch of the kingdom, Obi Uche Irenuma II, has been arrested by men of the state police command for masterminding the crisis.
Hours later, Irenuma’s driver, Osakpanwan Ebosa, 32, was nabbed for child stealing.
The suspect, according to the Police Public Relations Officer in Delta State, Charles Muka, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, was escaping with the child in his Gulf 3 car, with registration number GGG 767 XD, when he was apprehended.
The suspect, The Eagle Online gathered, successfully carried out the act because he lives opposite the compound of the parents of the baby.
The suspect and the victim, a nine-month-old boy, Winners Igbinowamhia, were immediately taken to Abavo Police Station before they were moved to the command headquarters in Asaba.
The Obi, the PPRO said, was arrested for “toeing the path of dishonour and violence and championed community war against homogenous community.”
Muka said Irenuma raised a false alarm that his mother (the Queen mother) was kidnapped and killed, knowing same to be lies.
The monarchical crisis was triggered by the discovery of oil in the Kingdom by Pan Ocean Oil Company last year.
Since the oil was discovered, the community had not known peace.
Issues bothering on the ancestral throne of the kingdom, some of which were kept in the cooler before oil regime, were swiftly brought to the front burners by the royal families.
Parading the suspect on Tuesday, the PPRO, who represented the state Commissioner of Police, Ayo Ikechukwu Aduba, described Abavo as “a restive community”, maintaining: “The community has since been divided along political lines and cleavages, enjoying months of uneasy calm that has nosedived into crises.”
According to Muka, the parties to the crises have taken recourse to self-help, causing serious damage to various properties.
He said the crises were further compounded with the allegation that the king sponsored the killing of one John Ogochukwu Okoh, a 40-year-old man, who died of sudden and unnatural death.
While Muka said the suspect who stole baby Winners has made useful statement and was helping men of the State Criminal Investigation Department in their investigation, the command warned irate youths in the kingdom taking law into their hands, vowing: “Any person(s) arrested, no matter how highly placed, will be dealt with according to the law.”
The command promised that justice would prevail.