Following the report of recent attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Odoke, Ndiobasi and Obakotara communities in Izhi, Ebonyi Local Government Area, an Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in Diaspora (AESID) has blamed governor Dave Umahi, for the continued killings in the state.
The Ebonyi indigenes said the recent attack is considered the highest number of casualties in the South-east region in recent times, “natives of the three affected communities were slaughtered in their scores with many dead and several others critically injured.”
In a statement made available to newsmen Tuesday in Abuja by the association’s President Amb. Paschal Oluchukwu, expressed disappointment that “despite earlier signs and premeditations including an alleged audio voice note widely circulated on the Social media which alerted on the plan to launch a fresh offensive on our defenceless citizens, the Ebonyi state government took no action to protect and defend the victims of this recent onslaught.
“We are greatly pained that helpless and hapless women, children and youths were cut in their prime in a dastard carnage that spanned for some hours while their victims were deep in their sleep.
“As we speak, medical and health-care workers in various parts of the State are offering treatments to scores of victims who sustained varying degrees of injuries during the attack. They have also been calls for ebullient citizens to provide clothing and other essential materials to the victims many of who are stranded in the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, AE-FUTHA, Abakaliki.
“Our anxiety over these sadly depressing attacks is made worse by the fact that the State’s Chief Security Officer, Engr. David Umahi on whose shoulders hugely lie the constitutional burden of protection of lives and properties of our beloved citizens has largely downplayed all sensible and reasonable warnings about the activities of killer herdsmen.
While condemning the massacre in Ebonyi communities, the group decried and questioned the conducts and activities of the men operating under the EbubeAgu Security network, saying “the outfit has remained what we had feared- a deliberate, willful and willing tool in the hands of the state government to hunt down, hound and maim members of the opposition- PDP and other voices.
“Rather than seek practical and viable solutions that can quell the growing unrests and attacks on our people, AESID wishes to reiterate that Umahi is so deeply stuck in his 2023 politics that he is rather empowering and emboldening the ‘bad guys’ to attack and kill those he considers his opponents.
“This group consequently condemn the claim that the attack took place in Benue State and the attempt by the State government to further downplay or trivialize not only the latest attack on Izhi communities but the entire security affairs in our dear State. The silence of the Speaker and political class in Izhi land, nay Ebonyi State and their inability to condemn these attack including the desperation of Umahi and his cahoots in security circles to always exonerate the provocative Fulani herdsmen from blames where and whenever they occur in Ebonyi demands thorough probe by International security bodies.
AESID however, called on the state government to change tactics in addressing insecurity in Ebonyi state.
“Unless perhaps he changes style and strategy on his current grandstanding and unbridled politicization of the security of lives and property of our people, AESID will continue to dump the blames of the killings of our people by marauding herders on the doorsteps of the Governor just as he continues to pay more attention and interest to his shadow-chasing 2023 political projections and campaigns!”
