Tragedy has struck in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area as Mrs. Chioma Chikadibia, a 58-year-old mother, died on Friday, August 8, 2025, after months of battling depression linked to the prolonged detention of her husband and three daughters by the Abia State Police Command.
Her only surviving child, Chikiezie Ifeoma Lilian, confirmed her mother’s passing on Wednesday.
“I lost my mom on Friday. She died out of depression and other complications over the continual detention of her husband, my father, and her three daughters by the police,” Ifeoma said in a trembling voice.
The deceased’s husband, 63-year-old shoemaker Mr. Chikadibia Sunday, and daughters — Glory, Ngozi, and Ogechi — were arrested during a midnight raid on April 12, 2025.
Eyewitnesses allege that armed men from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, some in plain clothes, broke into their home without a warrant, seized valuables, and whisked the family away.
For weeks, police denied holding the family. It later emerged they had been secretly arraigned and remanded at the Aba Correctional Centre without informing relatives or granting them legal representation.
Mrs. Chikadibia’s earlier interview with the press painted a grim picture of her family’s ordeal: her husband’s failing health, her youngest daughter Ogechi’s missed final exams at the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu, and the collapse of the family’s business.
“My husband is slimming down daily. Life has not been easy on me, coupled with my ill health. My children’s dreams have been scattered,” she had said.
Rights group Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) described the arrests as “a gross abuse of police power and due process,” urging the Inspector-General of Police and the Abia State Commissioner of Police to order an investigation and immediate release of the detainees.
With Mrs. Chikadibia’s death, human rights advocates fear the family’s plight may worsen unless urgent intervention is made.
