Honourable Member Representing Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency
National Assembly, Abuja
FROM:
XAVIER CHINAECHEREM MKPACHI-OKO, ESQ.
Human Rights Advocate & Son of Amasiri Community
6 March 2026
Distinguished Honourable Idu Ighariwey,
I write to you not with the courtesies that normally accompany correspondence between a constituent and his elected representative, but with the gravity that this moment demands. This is not a letter requesting favours or seeking patronage. This is a demand for representation in an hour when one of the largest communities in your Federal Constituency is being systematically destroyed by state power, and you have chosen silence.
Thirty-four days. That is how long Amasiri Community has endured collective punishment, administrative annihilation, and cultural desecration while their elected Federal Representative has maintained a silence so complete, so deafening, that it has become its own form of betrayal. Today, 6 March 2026, as the Ebonyi State Government reportedly orders the destruction of shrines and traditional deities in Amasiri, the question before history is no longer complex. It is brutally simple: Where is Hon. Idu Ighariwey while the people who elected him are being crushed?
THE MEMORIES YOU INVOKE WHEN YOU NEED VOTES
I remember 2022 and 2023 with perfect clarity. During your campaign for a third term in the House of Representatives, you stood on Amasiri soil and told us we were not strangers to you. You spoke about your formative years and how they connected you to this land. You invoked relationships with sons of Amasiri who had supported you at critical moments of your political journey. You mentioned names. You recalled specific instances. You painted yourself as someone who understood Amasiri, who valued Amasiri, who would never forget Amasiri.
Those were not casual statements. They were political currency offered in exchange for electoral support. Amasiri accepted that currency and delivered votes. Now, when the community that voted for you is bleeding, those memories have apparently evaporated. Those relationships have become inconvenient. Those promises have dissolved into a silence that is as calculated as it is cruel.
Let me be direct, Honourable: If you invoke Amasiri when you need votes, you cannot abandon Amasiri when we need representation. If you claim connection to this land during campaigns, you cannot disclaim responsibility when that land is under siege. If you remember names of Amasiri sons who supported you when it advanced your ambition, you cannot forget the entire community when remembering them would require political courage.
This is not how representation works. This is not what electoral mandate means. This is not what the National Assembly exists to facilitate. You are not a Member of the House of Representatives for Afikpo and selected parts of Edda. You represent the entire Federal Constituency, including Amasiri. Your silence in this moment is not merely disappointing. It is a fundamental abandonment of your constitutional duty.
THE LEGAL PROFESSIONAL WHO FORGOT THE LAW
Honourable Idu, you are a lawyer. You studied the same constitutional law I studied. You took the same oath to uphold the rule of law that I took. You understand, or should understand, what due process means, what fundamental human rights protect, what collective punishment violates.
Yet for thirty-four days, you have watched the people you represent subjected to actions that would fail any constitutional test in any court in Nigeria. No investigation preceded these punishments. No charges have been filed. No trial has occurred. No judicial pronouncement has established guilt against any individual, much less an entire community. The Constitution you swore to uphold has been suspended in Amasiri by executive decree, and you have said nothing.
Where is the lawyer in you? Where is the constitutional consciousness that should make you recoil at the sight of collective punishment? Where is the professional outrage that should compel you to speak when the rule of law is replaced by the rule of retaliatory power?
Your silence is not neutral. It is complicity. Every day you remain silent while constitutional violations continue is another day you betray the oath you took as a lawyer and the mandate you received as a legislator.
THE CATALOGUE OF CRIMES AGAINST AMASIRI
Let me remind you, since your silence suggests you may have forgotten, what has been done to the people you represent:
Two traditional rulers in Amasiri were dethroned, arrested, and detained without judicial process. These are custodians of culture whose authority derives from centuries of tradition, and they were removed by executive fiat as if they were political appointees who serve at pleasure.
The Amasiri Development Centre was dissolved and its Coordinator arrested and detained. An institution created to serve community development was abolished without investigation, without legislative process, without any finding that would justify such drastic administrative action.
All schools within the community were shut down. Children have been denied education for over a month. Their crime? Being born in Amasiri.
Hospitals and health facilities were effectively shut. The sick have been denied medical care. Pregnant women, the elderly, the infirm have been cut off from healthcare. This is collective punishment in its most savage form.
An almost round-the-clock curfew was imposed on the community, effectively placing thousands of citizens under house arrest without charges, without trial, without judicial authorization.
Nigerian military personnel deployed to the community have reportedly subjected residents to harassment, beatings, and humiliation. The same military that failed to protect Amasiri for twelve months when they were being killed is now deployed to suppress them.
Tear gas and other projectiles were fired at protesting mothers and elderly women. Grandmothers aged 70 to 80 years were dispersed with force for the crime of peaceful protest. Their blood stained community junctions, and you said nothing.
Many young men have fled the community out of fear. Others, including Mr. Okechukwu Ezeobia, have reportedly disappeared. Families do not know if their sons are detained, hiding, or dead.
Several persons who could not flee were arrested, detained, and allegedly tortured for offences they deny any knowledge of. Torture. In 2026. In Nigeria. In a community you represent.
The impossible burden of producing alleged severed heads was placed on the entire community. Civilians with no investigative powers, no arrest authority, no forensic capacity are being collectively punished until they somehow produce evidence that only law enforcement agencies have the legal power and technical capacity to recover.
The Governor publicly used extremely derogatory language to describe the people of Amasiri, calling them barbarians. Your constituents. The people whose votes put you in the National Assembly. Called barbarians by their Governor, and you remained silent.
Now, on 5 March 2026, the destruction of shrines and traditional deities has reportedly begun. The cultural identity of Amasiri is being systematically erased, and the Member representing Amasiri in the National Assembly has not uttered a single public word of objection.
THE CULTURAL DESECRATION YOU WITNESS IN SILENCE
Honourable Idu, you know what these shrines and deities represent. You are not culturally ignorant. You understand that these structures are part of the heritage and identity of Amasiri, no different fundamentally from the cultural institutions that exist in Ehugbo and across the region. You have delivered Ikeji Lectures during New Yam Festival seasons. You have spoken eloquently about preserving heritage and protecting community identity.
Yet when that heritage is being destroyed, when that identity is under assault, when cultural symbols are being demolished as instruments of collective punishment, you are silent.
The question that terrifies the people of Amasiri is not complicated: What will be targeted next after the shrines? Will it be The Apostolic Church at Amasiri Junction? Will it be Saint Gabriel’s Catholic Church? Will it be Saint James Presbyterian Church? Will it be Assemblies of God Church in Amudi? Will the destruction extend to the Essa Meeting Hall? To Orie Market Ezeke? To the rice mills? To whatever community structures remain?
These are not hypothetical questions. This is the trajectory of collective punishment. It starts with administrative actions, escalates to military deployment, evolves into cultural desecration, and ends wherever those wielding power decide it should end. The only force that can stop this trajectory is political will and public accountability. You possess political standing. You have access to national platforms. You are not powerless. You are silent by choice.
THE RUMOUR THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING
It is widely rumoured, Honourable Idu, that you have defected from the PDP under whose banner the people of Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency elected you to the APC, the party of Governor Nwifuru, the party currently wielding state power against Amasiri.
If this rumour is false, then issue a public denial and demonstrate through action that your loyalty remains with your constituents rather than with political expediency.
If this rumour is true, then your silence is not mysterious. It is calculated. It is the price you have decided to pay for political realignment. It is the cost you have determined your new political allies require: the abandonment of one of your largest constituent communities in their hour of greatest need.
Let me be absolutely clear about what this means. If you have chosen party over people, if you have prioritized political alignment with the Governor over constitutional duty to your constituents, if you have traded the suffering of Amasiri for whatever benefits your defection promises, then you have fundamentally betrayed the electoral mandate you were given.
The people who voted for you did not vote for the APC. They voted for Idu Ighariwey on the PDP platform. If you have changed parties without changing seats, you have engaged in political fraud. If you remain in office on the strength of votes given to you under one party while serving the interests of another, you are occupying that office under false pretenses.
And if your silence on Amasiri is the price your new political allies demanded for accepting your defection, then you have sold your constituents for a political transaction. History will record this with unforgiving clarity.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY YOU HAVE ABANDONED
Section 14(2)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states: “Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority.”
You derive your authority from the people of Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency. That includes the people of Amasiri. Your power comes from them, not from the Governor, not from the party, not from political alignments. From them.
Section 88(1) of the Constitution empowers the National Assembly to “expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it.”
The collective punishment of Amasiri is inefficiency at best, constitutional violation at worst, and potential abuse of power throughout. You have the constitutional authority and duty to investigate, to question, to demand accountability. You have used none of this authority.
Section 88(2)(b) specifically empowers you to “procure evidence, written or oral, direct or circumstantial” and to “summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence.” You could summon the Governor. You could summon security chiefs. You could demand explanations for why an entire community has been punished without trial. You have done none of this.
Your silence is not merely political cowardice. It is constitutional dereliction of duty.
THE QUESTION HISTORY WILL NOT FORGET
When this dark season passes, and it will pass because no tyranny lasts forever and no collective punishment can be sustained indefinitely, there will be a reckoning. Not in the courts, perhaps, and not through formal processes, but in the memory of the people and the judgment of history.
The question that will be asked is devastatingly simple: Where was Hon. Idu Ighariwey when Amasiri cried out?
What did the Member representing Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency say when one of his largest constituent communities was subjected to collective punishment?
What did he do when their schools were shut, their hospitals closed, their leaders arrested, their youths chased away, their shrines destroyed, and their culture desecrated?
Did he speak? Did he act? Did he use any of the constitutional powers vested in him by the people who elected him? Or did he calculate that silence was safer, that political realignment was more valuable, that the suffering of Amasiri was an acceptable price for whatever benefits his new party promised?
These questions will follow you, Honourable. They will be asked by the children denied education who will remember that their Representative did nothing. They will be asked by the families of the disappeared who will remember that their Representative was silent. They will be asked by the elderly women who were tear-gassed and will remember that their Representative offered no protection. They will be asked by every person whose constitutional rights were violated while their elected Federal Representative chose party over people, political convenience over constitutional duty, silence over representation.
THE DEMAND THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED
This letter is not a request. It is a demand rooted in constitutional law, electoral mandate, and basic human decency.
I demand that you publicly address the collective punishment of Amasiri Community and call for its immediate cessation.
I demand that you use your constitutional powers under Section 88 to investigate the actions taken against Amasiri and demand accountability from the Ebonyi State Government.
I demand that you call for the restoration of schools, hospitals, and all public services to Amasiri.
I demand that you insist on the release of all persons detained without charges and the restoration of traditional rulers removed without judicial process.
I demand that you condemn the cultural desecration being carried out against Amasiri shrines and traditional institutions.
I demand that you clarify your party status and, if you have indeed defected to the APC, that you resign your seat and seek a fresh mandate from the people under your new party.
I demand that you remember that you are a lawyer sworn to uphold the rule of law, a legislator obligated to defend constitutional rights, and a representative whose power derives from the people you have abandoned.
These are not suggestions. These are the minimum requirements of the office you hold and the oath you took.
THE CHOICE BEFORE YOU
You have a choice, Honourable Idu Ighariwey. It is a choice between silence and speech, between complicity and courage, between political calculation and constitutional duty.
You can continue your silence and allow history to record that when Amasiri needed representation, their Federal Representative was absent. You can maintain your calculated neutrality and let posterity judge that when constitutional rights were violated, the lawyer who represented Amasiri said nothing. You can preserve your political relationships and accept that the price was the betrayal of your largest constituent community in their darkest hour.
Or you can speak. You can act. You can use the constitutional powers you possess. You can demonstrate that representation means something beyond elections, that electoral mandate carries obligations beyond campaign promises, that being a Member of the House of Representatives means defending all the people you represent, not just those whose suffering is politically convenient to acknowledge.
The choice is yours. But understand this: silence is also a choice. Inaction is also a decision. And history will record what you chose with the same precision that it records what was done to the people you were elected to represent.
CONCLUSION: HISTORY IS WATCHING
Thirty-four days ago, the collective punishment of Amasiri began. For thirty-four days, you have been silent. Every additional day of silence is another entry in the historical record that will define your legacy.
The people of Amasiri are not asking for miracles. They are asking for representation. They are asking that their Federal Representative remember that they exist, that they vote, that they have constitutional rights, that they are human beings whose suffering should matter to the person they elected to speak for them.
Speak for them, Honourable Idu. Stand for them. Demand that the rule of law replace collective punishment. Demand that investigation replace retaliation. Demand that justice follow lawful process rather than the crushing weight of executive anger. Use the constitutional authority you possess. Exercise the powers the people gave you. Remember why you were elected and who elected you.
Or remain silent and accept that when the definitive history of this dark chapter is written, your silence will be recorded as loudly as the screams of those you refused to defend.
The people of Amasiri are watching. The Federal Constituency you represent is watching. The National Assembly whose member you claim to be is watching. History is watching. And God, who sees all things, is watching.
Choose wisely. Choose quickly. And choose remembering that every day you remain silent is another day you betray the trust of the people whose votes put you in office.
Respectfully but unequivocally submitted,
XAVIER CHINAECHEREM MKPACHI-OKO, ESQ.
Human Rights Advocate
Legal Practitioner
Son of Amasiri Community
Constituent of Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency
Defender of Constitutional Rights
6 March 2026
cc: Speaker, House of Representatives, National Assembly, Abuja
cc: Chairman, House Committee on Human Rights
cc: National Human Rights Commission
cc: International Human Rights Organizations
cc: Nigerian Bar Association, Ebonyi State Branch
cc: Civil Society Organizations Monitoring the Amasiri Crisis
cc: Media Houses (National and International)
Editor’s Note:
This article is an opinion / open letter submitted to Liberal News. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of the publication.
