{"id":334305,"date":"2021-04-01T10:57:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T09:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=334305"},"modified":"2021-04-01T12:56:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T11:56:02","slug":"fight-back-with-vigilantes-umahi-orders-lg-chairmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=334305","title":{"rendered":"Fight back with vigilantes, Umahi orders LG chairmen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"NURTW\/Community
Governor David Umahi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/h3>\n

By Henry Umoru, Peter Duru, Peter Okutu, Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Chinedu Adonu, Ikechukwu Odu & Steve Oko<\/h3>\n

Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State yesterday ordered the 13 local government council chairmen in the state to immediately form vigilante groups and ensure placement of cross bars at strategic locations across communities in the state.
\nThe measures, according to the state government is meant to forestal futher breakdown of law and order in the affected communities and the state at large.
\nThe governor gave the order against the backdrop of Monday\u2019s attack of four communities in the state by herdsmen who killed at least 18 persons, including a Methodist priest, while several others were injured.
\nHe spoke as a survivor narrated how how the herdersalso abducted some women in the communities who are yet to be found.
\nThis is even as the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and South-East caucus of the Senate yesterday called on the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu, and heads of other security agencies to quickly fish out those responsible for the carnage for prosecution.
\nEbonyi government response<\/strong>
\nCommissioner for Information and State Orientation, Barr. Orji Uchenna Orji, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting at old Government House, Abakaliki, said: \u201cEXCO frowned very seriously on the killings at Egedegede Community in Ishielu Local Government Area. The governor had visited the scene yesterday and demanded justice for the victims from the security agencies.
\n\u201cThe LGA chairmen were directed to form local vigilantes and put cross-bars at strategic locations. EXCO directed that 100 Neighbourhood Watch per LGA be deployed to effectively police our various communities.
\n\u201cEXCO noted the report on Effium\/Ezza Effium and commended the efforts of government in establishing additional two mobile police units in the communities and providing additional 600 soldiers to the affected community.
\n\u201cEXCO considered a report on the activities of the chairman of Ohaukwu Local Government Area and all elected\/appointed officials from the Area. EXCO frowned at the actions and inactions of the elected and appointed public office holders which were responsible for the crisis in the area.
\n\u201cEXCO recommended to Ebonyi State House of Assembly that all elected\/appointed officials from Effium and Ezza Effium including the Councilors, the Council Chairman and the EBHA Member be suspended from office.
\n\u201cEXCO resolved to place dust to dawn curfew in Effium\/Ezza Effium community with effect from 31st March 2021 till normalcy returns to the place. EXCO further resolved that anybody who sends false information or false alarm on the situation in Effium\/Ezza Effium shall be prosecuted.
\n\u201cEXCO approved N843m for the first Phase of earth work and concreting of a section of the Airport taxi way (1.3Km section). EXCO further approved N117m for the internal partitioning at international market.\u201d
\n\u2018Herdsmen abducted women\u2019<\/strong>
\nOne of the survivors of the attack, Comrade Okey Emmanuel, said the herdsmen abducted the women who were returning from the market on the day of the incident as they fled the affected communities.
\n\u201cWhat happened here is a dark cloud that has befallen these communities. We are talking about the dead. An Anambra man also lost his life. Before now, he just buried his son. I counted up to 16 bodies and some are still in the bush.
\n\u201cThe number of corpses we cannot tell. The herdsmen had ulterior motive. Their coordinator\u2019s name is Rashidi. He said when they were leaving the community, he will make the community shed tears and I believe this is the tears.
\n\u201cWe are talking about the dead but there are some females who were coming back from the market and we don\u2019t know their whereabouts now. That means they must have taken them away. I urge the government and local government chairman to handle this matter squarely.
\n\u201cThe herders are not happy because they were destroying crops and we sanctioned them. But now, they came back. Are they rating cows more than human beings?\u201d
\n\u2018Securitymen did nothing\u2019<\/strong>
\nAlso speaking, Mr. Ikechukwu Oduwa, the Town Union President of Nkalaha community, expressed deep sadness over the incident.
\n\u201cI feel so bad that the security agencies couldn\u2019t do anything and that was why they came to my place and burnt my car and killed our people. They killed up to 18 of us. We feel very sad.\u201d
\nJoseph Chibo, the Town Union President of Nkalagu autonomous community, described what happened as shocking.
\n\u201cThe people of Igbesa are saddened by this development. It is a very bad situation for our people. Enugu State is equally affected. Despite all the efforts of the governor for us to live peacefully with these people, we are saddened by this development.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a big shock and we can\u2019t think right. How do we know that strangers who left our place a year ago would suddenly come back and the next thing we are hearing is massacre.
\n\u201cWe have been living peacefully with these people only to wake up with these corpses as a gift. Personally, I counted 16 in number.\u201d
\nThe scenario where the incident occurred is now a shadow of itself as corpses were seen being evacuated in a truck. Vanguard gathered that some corpses were already decomposing due to abandonment.
\nFish out culprits, S\u2019East Senate Caucus tells IGP, security agencies <\/strong>
\nReacting to the attack yesterday, senators from the South East said the masterminds of the act must not go unpunished like others before them.
\nIn a statement by the chairman, South East Senate Caucus and former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the lawmakers described the killings as unfeeling.
\nThe statement read: \u201cThis act is most unfeeling and gruesome and we condemn it in totality. But more importantly, this must not go unpunished like others before it.
\n\u201cIt is imperative to warn that the Nigerian state is fast delegitimising itself by its failure to discharge the primary purpose of government, which is security and welfare of the people, as clearly prescribed in Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution.
\n\u201cThe widespread killings and all manner of violent crimes across the country have continued to worsen because the perpetrators walk away with their crimes, never arrested or brought to book.
\n\u201cTherefore, this is particularly a call on the Inspector-General of Police and the heads of security agencies to bring the perpetrators of the Ebonyi killings to book expeditiously. To do otherwise will amount to further loss of government\u2019s exclusive power of coercion to non-state actors and brigands, leaving citizens and constituent parts of the country with no option than to further resort to self-help.\u201d
\nThe caucus, while condoling with the government and people of Ebonyi State on the sad development, said: \u201cWe stand in sympathy and solidarity with the government and people of Ebonyi State over this dastardly incident and will give every necessary support to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.\u201d
\nKiller herdsmen must face justice \u2013 CAN <\/strong>
\nAlso reacting, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, South-East zon,e said it was stricken with grief over the senseless murder of defenceless villagers.
\nRising from a meeting, chairman of CAN in South-East, Bishop Goddy Okafor, in a communique, said they received with rude shock the level of carnage in Ebonyi State, to the extent that human beings were slaughtered like chicken by persons whose identities were not hidden.
\n\u201cWe are indeed in deep grief that lives of innocent people were terminated in such a gruesome manner without any form of intervention from security agencies.We were yet to recover from a similar report from Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State.
\n\u201cWe are drenched in tears and sorrow and that is why we are demanding that the perpetrartors must be brought to book. We read in the media that Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State said he knows those behind the dastardly act, so the government should go after them with every force of law to serve as a detterent to others.
\n\u201cWherever these people are, whoever they are, security agencies must fish them out and have them face the consequences of their actions. These two incidents must not be swept under the carpet like previous ones.\u201d
\nCAN equally said the latest killings should serve as a wake up call to the South-East Governors as \u201cit now appears that the zone is indeed under siege as no day passes by without one form of similar incident or the other.
\n\u201cThe governors should put politics aside and come up with collaborative strategies to safeguard the zone by check-mating the activities of these killer herders and bandits who are terrrorizing the South-East zone,\u2019\u2019 the statement read.
\nUmahi shedding crocodile tears-Rights group<\/strong>
\nMeanwhile, an Onitsha-based rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety, has described as \u201ccrocodile tears,\u201d the mourning of Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State at the scene of violent attacks at Ishielu Local Government Area of the state on Monday.
\nThe group equally alleged that the governor signed away the territorial security of the people of the state in exchange for his second term in office.
\nIn a statement signed by the chairman, Board of Trustees, Emeka Umeagbalasi and other principal officers of the group, the group also alleged that the lives of the Igbos had been endangered like never before under the reign of the governor as chairman of South-East Governors Forum.
\nThe statement also described the present crop of governors in the South-East zone as the weakest in Nigeria, adding that they had laid the foundation for the destruction and enslavement of the Igbo nation.
\nThe group equally alleged that over 700 violent herdsmen settlements abound in bushes, forests and farmlands across South-East, South-South and some parts of Middle Belt at present.
\nIPOB accuses security agencies of collusion<\/strong>
\nReacting to the killings, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, accused security agencies of aiding and abetting murderous herdsmen to kill Biafran people of Ebonyi and Enugu states
\nIPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said in a statement that IPOB and ESN were chasing criminal herdsmen in the whole of South-East and South-South and will spare no terrorists in the regions.
\nThe statement read: \u201cIt is now clear and open to the public how Nigeria security agencies are aiding and abetting murderous terrorist herdsmen to kill our Biafran people in Ebonyi and Enugu States.
\n\u201cNigeria security agencies are giving them cover to attack the villagers in these two states because Nigeria Army and Police in uniforms are terrorists Nigerians and Nigeria as a country are suffering today.
\n\u201cIf Nigerians and communities wants to be free from terrorism, they must openly reject Nigeria security operatives in the country, they are all terrorists and working for terrorists.
\n\u201cHow can security agencies that are supposed to protect and secure innocent citizens will be providing cover for terrorists to attack people, that is what IPOB is talking about.
\n\u201cIPOB and ESN are chasing Fulani terrorists herdsmen in the whole of South East and South South and we won\u2019t spare terrorists when we get them.\u201d
\nVanguard News Nigeria<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor David Umahi By Henry Umoru, Peter Duru, Peter Okutu, Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Chinedu Adonu, Ikechukwu Odu & Steve Oko Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State yesterday ordered the 13 local government council chairmen in the state to immediately form vigilante groups and ensure placement of cross bars at strategic locations across communities in the state. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3773,3],"tags":[702,4166,4265],"class_list":["post-334305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-news","tag-ebonyi","tag-gunmen","tag-umahi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}