The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has urged the Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, to set up a Judicial Panel of Inquiry over Sunday’s killings in the state.
The State Security Service (SSS) said two of its operatives were killed allegedly by members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the clash.
IPOB also said 21 of its members were killed by security operatives and 47 others arrested.
Abaribe said the judicial panel would help to unravel the truth in the assertions of both the security and other groups on what really happened.
The lawmaker said the constancy of the killings of Igbo youth allegedly by security agents had given room to wide suspicion of a sinister motive.
He also warned against labeling every Igbo group as terrorists.
Abaribe, in a statement in Abuja by his Media Adviser, Uchenna Awom, said it was disheartening that security operatives seems to derive pleasure at any slight whim to unleash mayhem using the most lethal weapons against unarmed Igbo youths at every turn.
Such unsavory, brutal and hateful resort to extreme repression demeaned Nigeria’s democratic ethos, he added.
He said: “We are in a democracy where every agency of government, particularly the security apparatchik must adhere strictly to rules of engagement with regards to dealings with the civil populace in such a manner that will be in conformity with international best practices.
“The last time I checked, Nigerians still enjoy freedom to associate freely.
“Nobody has told us that the Igbo youths meeting last Sunday was a gathering meant to launch attack on anybody.
“Who will they attack and for what?
“What intelligence informed the police and DSS deployment to the venue of the meeting?”
The Minority Leader further said it was most worrisome that the people will no longer gather peacefully in their own country without being dispersed forcefully or be branded terrorists for no just cause.
He, however, advised the youths to remain calm and not to resort to any form of reprisals, or succumb to provocations that could tempt them to take laws into their own hands.
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