*Natives still attacked soldiers posted there for peace to seize their guns
Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State on Sunday morning restated his resolve to crush every inter-community violence, wars and killings in the state.
The governor announced this at the end of the Sunday church service at the State House, Abakaliki.
In his address as a sequel to the violence on the people of Oso Edda in Edda LGA by assailants from the nearby Amasiri Community of Afikpo LGA, Nwifuru in a lengthy address affirmed that all the decisions arrived at by the Security Council of the state in its emergency meeting in the night of January 31 to contain the needless and blood-cuddling violence are no window dressing, but must be fully and decisively implemented.
In a terse address, he said “if the people of Amasiri feel that I am strict on them in my decisions, they have the right and option of conducting a referendum to join another state where the violence they unleashed on Okporojo will be condoned. For me in Ebonyi, that is not who we are.
We had reached agreements with Amasiri and Edda to maintain peace until findings are concluded, and this was just recently. Previous administrations had set up inquiries, and we have been on the task to bring a final resolution. Unfortunately, the people of Amasiri decided to prove that they can do as they like, wake up when there is no war and sack another community, kill four to five people and their heads taken away, and burn down their houses, and nothing will happen.
The facts are there to speak that their attack was a needless action because the communities were not at war. The attack was unprovoked, and the distance from Amasiri to the place of the attack is about 9.5km of fallow land. There is no business going on on that stretch. They moved that distance and attacked the village of Okporojo, killed an aged woman who walked with the aid of a stick. After they killed her, the stick she was walking with due to old age was still there when we visited. They killed another who people said was shouting and begging to be spared. They took their heads away However, I don’t know what they are using human heads for in this generation. I want to tell you that this is not our culture, and we can’t take that. If I keep quiet over this, it will send a wrong impression about who we are and what we stand for. We stand for peace, and will do everything within our power to make sure there is peace in that area and everywhere in the state.”
Giving more details of the decisions against Amasiri, Nwifuru said “in our decision also, all government workers in Amasiri are redeployed to other places. The reason for these actions is to make sure that peace reigns. I want the people to know that nobody has the right to take people’s lives.
There was no fight over the land when this attack occurred . Meanwhile, before this needless attack, an agreement had been reached and signed for peace, that is why I sacked all stakeholders because they are culpable since they are party to the peace deal.
I am further going to relieve all the civil servants from Amasiri community of their duties in the entire state. I am going to sack all of them. I am doing this because if we handle the matter lightly, another community will try such violence against another. I can’t sit still and watch that. I want every community to consider the weight of unleashing violence on another community before they try such.
I know that some people disagree with these decision and will criticize us, but that is why we are in government. We must be criticized while others agree with us, but we are out to do the right thing to safeguard the people. We are in government to take decisions, and we must make decisions, and we don’t just make decisions, we must implement whatever we say.
Because of the incident, we convened an emergency security council meeting at 8 pm on January 31. Right now, I have deployed security operatives everywhere in Amasiri. For the time being, no government amenity in Amasiri will work again until those heads are recovered, peace returns, and we see a different behaviour. Hospitals, schools and others must be shut down. We had contemplated banning them from plying government roads, but we changed our mind. A media person at our briefing asked if the conditions will remain this way, I responded that it won’t be indefinite, and that whenever peace returns, we relax the restrictions.
We must do something stringent and shut them out from government benefits as a warning to all communities never to try such without thinking twice about the consequences.”
We agreed at the meeting that we have to repeal the Development Area law and remove Amasiri, demolish the council office, and turn the place to a playground. The two traditional rulers of Amasiri are removed and their certificates or recognition withdrawn.
Someone asked if I remember that my stringent actions against Amasiri may affect my re-election, I said, that doesn’t matter. I rather lose election than wish that lives should be sacrificed for my victory.
In addition, Amasiri people are restrained from leaving Amasiri, and anyone found outside Amasiri must be arrested and prosecuted. Even if you are a big man from Amasiri living in Abakaliki, you will be arrested and prosecuted because you must go back to your village and sort out the crisis you started.
To worsen the situation, the governor surprised the audience when he revealed “the same Amasiri people at 7 pm on January 31 started attacking military men posted there to take their guns. Their commander called me to complain about that because I sent soldiers and policemen to the town and to Okporojo. When I got the complaint, we had to send a beef-up team of soldiers there.”
