Ebonyi indigenes appeal to police, DSS to end killings in Edda

A group, Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in the Diaspora (AESID), has called on the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and the Director-General of the Department of State Security Services (DSS), Magaji Bichi, to intervene and quickly bring to an end cases of political violence and killings ongoing in Asaga Owutu Edda in Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

A statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Saturday and signed by the Chairman of the Association, Ambassador Pascal Oluchukwu, condemned; “the acts of banditry, terrorism and killings which have been imposed on Edda clan since the current democratic/political dispensation in the state.”

The association said: “On the 27th March, 2020, a 19- year-old boy, Chidi Oji Arua, was killed at Nguzu Edda.

“From Sunday, 3rd May, 2020 to Wednesday, 6th May, 2020, three young men from Owutu Edda were murdered in cold blood.

“The first boy, Onu Chima Ukpai, was shot dead by an alleged member of a rival cult group. Then on Tuesday, 5th May, 2020, one of the boys, Chinedu Offor Ufere, who was wounded during the Sunday attack and was hospitalized, died.

“Then again, on Wednesday, 6th May, 2020, one Jarun, the elder brother of the boy who was killed on Sunday, went on a revenge mission and killed one Raphael Okereke,” the association said.

The association noted that the immediate causes of the bloody confrontations can be traced to three recent events which heightened tension in the major flash-points of the LGA.

“The events are; the allocation of political offices in the LGA in 2019, conduct of the 2020 Chairmanship and Councillorship primaries and the composition of the COVID-19 Implementation/Enforcement Task Force in the LGA,” the association alleged.

While condemning the State governor, David Umahi, for not showing enough concerns over the happenings in the local government area, the association asked him to; “immediately institute an independent judicial panel of inquiry to probe the causes of the killings in Edda, if he is sincere about finding a lasting solution to the problem.

“We will also wish to call on the Federal Government and the human rights organizations in Nigeria to wade into Ebonyi State and engage the government of Umahi to forestall further bloodshed in the area.”