OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, SENATOR HOPE UZODIMMA.
By Chinedu Agu
Your Excellency.
At about 4:25 PM today, Thursday, 30 April 2026, right at Warehouse Roundabout, I witnessed a scene straight out of a nightmare, not from armed robbers, but from men in white Hilux SUV branded, “Office of the Governor, Compliance and Monitoring Unit.”
Following behind this Hilux was a silver colour Hijet Mini Bus, which we call _Keke Bus_ with Ebonyi State Registration number CHR 526 XB.
These two cars were packed full with menacing young men who looked like hardened criminals. Some with dreadlocks swinging wildly, others with eyes glaring like they made their way straight from the pit of hell. They were clad in white shirts, black vests, varied jeans, and black caps. On the back of their black vests were emblazoned with “Monitoring and Compliance Unit.”
They screeched to a halt, leaped out of the vehicles wielding clubs and weapons like kidnappers on a heist, and swooped on helpless roadside traders like famished vultures. These were not enforcers but thieves in government uniforms.
In a frantic competition of who would out-thief the other, they swooped on traders’ wares, carting away what looked like phone accessories in packs, and other items which I could not see clearly from my distance.
Like kidnappers, they jumped into their cars after ensuring that each of them had snatched away their choicest loots like a kite plucking away a straying chick from the mother earth.
Driving behind them, I immediately stopped to observe the free horror movie.
I watched them drive about 100 metres ahead, and stopped abruptly again to swoop on a man who was carrying a barrow of _kwilikwili_ and tigernut. These hoodlums upended his barrow, dumping everything into gutters and the filthy ground. Immediately, they entered their car, made a U-turn infront of the former Mbari Kitchen, and screeched off, heading towards Bank Road.
When I could not stand it, I made a U-turn and parked infront of the warehouse building. I approached the seller of the tigernut and _kwilikwili._ Amidst tears, he introduced himself as Abdul Aliyu. While we spoke, his four other brothers scrambled on all fours, tears streaming, picking soggy remnants from the ground. “That was all I had left,” he muttered amid sobbs in his language, which one of them later interpreted to me. His voice broke as he gathered what he could.
I moved to the next trader. After some reluctance, he introduced himself as Jonna Nwafor. He sold phone accessories in a truck. He listed to me what exactly it was that the men carted away:
Puga Headsets (₦25k); 2 Samsung headsets (₦25k) each; Redmi Earpods (₦35k); Itel Earpods (₦29k); SK Bluetooth (₦25k); Two Redmi small earpods (₦50k total); Jamax earpods (₦10k); and E-hub earpods (₦25k) – over ₦224k in broad daylight robbery.
John Ndubuisi, cap seller, lost four Barrets (red, black, carton, thick brown at ₦8k each) and a black head warmer (₦8k) – another ₦40k gone.
Traders fled in terror, many too frightened to even speak to me.
Their eyes screamed fear, their silence hid deeper losses.
This hooliganism echoes the dark days of ENTRACO thugs, who rampaged with impunity, destroying livelihoods and sometimes costing lives.
Your Excellency, interrogate the propriety of this savagery! How can “compliance” look like armed robbery?
What happens to the rights of ownership of property, dignity and freedom from arbitrary deprivation. This is a state-sanctioned terror!
Let me be clear: I do not support street trading. It breeds chaos, and must stop. But this? Armed thugs looting like bandits? No!
What happens to proper relocation, notices, and civil enforcement? That’s the way, not this barbarism.
I hold phone numbers of these three victims [and pictures captured on-site showing these criminals mid-act], but I won’t release the numbers publicly to honour data protection laws. I’m ready to furnish all to your inquiry.
Your Excellency, act now:
1. Launch an immediate inquiry to identify these perpetrators, sack them, and bring them to book.
2. Compensate Abdul, Jonna, John, and any silent victims I couldn’t reach due to their fear. Resore what was stolen, plus for trauma.
3. Purge hoodlums from such units; employ only disciplined and trained citizens.
4. Mandate proper training and clear rules of engagement for all field operatives.
5. Institute rigorous monitoring of these workers and similar agencies to prevent abuse.
If no action is taken in 7 days, my office shall cause a formal demand letter to be issued on the Head of that unit, where we shall make tougher demands failure which we shall then institute a suit onbehalf these crushed traders.
End this shame. Justice now!
Your Former Political Detainee [FPD],
● Agu is a Solicitor | Notary Public | Past Secretary, NBA Owerri
onyeokaiwu@gmail.com
