Onitsha: Why Soldiers Manhandled, Arrested Actor Chinwetalu Agu

By Charles Igbo

Veteran Nollywood Actor, Chinwetalu Agu got more than he bargained for when he fell victim of the soldiers attached to the Operation Golden Dawn.

Problem started for the Actor in the Upper Iweka area of Onitsha, the commercial town, when his bus, with the inscription Chinwetalu Agu Films, which he was driving, was flagged down by the soldiers.

He was asked to come down and open the booth. He came down in all “his majestic self”, wearing a long attire made of the Biafran flag

That may have provoked the soldiers whose brief is to maintain peace and take care of anything that could provoke a breach of peace.

Apparently, to them, wearing  a dress made of the Biafran flag, with its “rising sun” insignia is a no-no.

Onitsha is a heartbeat of the activities of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, a separatist group asking for an independent South-east (Biafra) from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

It is not known the questions  the soldiers asked him, or the answers he gave them, but the Actor was seen being held both hands by the soldiers. He sat on the ground, as if to resist,  and the soldiers carried him up and headed out of the scene.

A couple of gun shots took care of  the gathered crowd. They scampered to safety.

But minutes later, some youths took to the streets protesting the treatment and arrest of Chinwetalu Agu for, apparently, wearing a dress made of the flag.

The video of the incident has since gone viral.

At the time of writing this, it was not known if the Actor has been released or not or, even, for what offence he would be detained.