Ebonyi Killings: Ex-Commissioner opens up

OBINNA EZUGWU

Former Commissioner for Information in Ebonyi State, Chief Abia Onyike has blamed the state governor, Dave Umahi for the recent killings in Edda community in the state, alleging that the governor is encouraging the killings by backing a local government chairman in the area who, according to him, is the main culprit in the continuing bloodshed.

Chief Onyike who said this in a statement he sent to this correspondent on Monday, noted killings have been ongoing in Edda community since 2007 when one Hon. Eni Uduma now chairman of Afikpo Local Government, formed a ‘killer’ squad known as ‘More Can Be Done’

Onyike in the statement titled: “Political Tyranny and Bloodbath in Edda, Opening the Pandora Box,” narrated the history of the killings in the area, and called on President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government to intervene urgently in order to forestall further deaths.

“I want to first of all condemn the acts of banditry, terrorism and killings which have been imposed on Edda Clan since the current democratic/political dispensation,”Onyike’s statement read.

“The denigration of Edda politics to this level of outright and shameless political criminality dates back to sometime around the year 2007 when people of doubtful character entered into Edda/Ebonyi political horizon as political adventurers and merchants of death. Now, we can look back and note that their outing in the field of politics has destroyed Edda and relegated her into a state of mournful and regrettable degradation with their own political careers relapsing into shameful monumental tragedy.

“BACKGROUND TO THE POLITICS OF TERROR AND KILLINGS IN EDDA:

This is not the first time people are being killed in Edda over political struggles. Since 2007, when miscreants became the political Lords in Edda, killings have become the norm rather than exceptions. The political process in Edda became criminalized. All kinds of characters were recruited, including vagabonds, bandits and ex-convicts who were released from prison custody and quickly integrated as cadres in the emerging political structures. Then a viscious and violent torture/killer squad, known as “More Can Be Done” was set up by Hon. Eni Uduma Chima, a former two-term member of Ebonyi State House of Assembly(2007-2015) and the incumbent Chairman of Afikpo South Local Government Area.

“The group operates as a terror outfit, specializing in torture of innocent citizens, kidnapping, rape, beating of people with Koboko horse whips imported from foreign countries, extra-judicial executions and other nefarious/criminal activities.

“Hon. Eni spent 8- years in the House of Assembly (2007-2015). He was appointed a Care-taker Committee Chairman for Afikpo South Local Government in 2015, elected as Chairman in 2017 and wants to remain in office till possibly 2023 before proceeding to the House of Representatives.

“On the other hand, his political God-father,the Governor of Ebonyi state, Chief David Umahi rose from State Chairman of PDP(2007-2011) to Deputy Governor(2011-2015), now Governor for two terms(2015-2023) and scheming to become Vice President or President in 2023 or at worst a Senator. So, one can say that there had been a secret pact between Governor Umahi and Hon. Eni for perpetuating themselves in public office for life, no matter the consequences. The opinion of the people is immaterial. This politics of self-perpetuation as an anti-democratic culture breeds rival counter-forces, which tends to resist, reject and rebuff it.

” RECENT KILLINGS

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

It was alleged that some officials of the Afikpo South Local Government COVID-19 Task Force went to Nguzu to enforce the Government policy banning burial of corpses as part of the COVID-19 lockdown. Some villagers resisted and the Personal Assistant to the Council Chairman, Keneth Agha Okoro(aka Mukoro) was rough-handled. He was said to have gone back to base to alert his group who went to Nguzu Edda to unleash mahem and Chidi was found lying dead after sporadic gunshots. The Council Chair, Hon. Chima claimed that the boy was an armed robber. The Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information, Barrister Uchenna Oji said that the death of the young man is traceable to the age-long communal rift between Ekoli and Nguzu Edda communities. Then the Abuja-based Human Rights Commission blamed the death on the activities of the COVID-19 Task Force.

” 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 recent killings in Edda reflect the brutal and crude political culture of violence and blood-bath which has been used as an instrument of political domination of the area. It is an extension of the regime of terror, thuggery, intimidation and gangsterism mounted by Gov. David Umahi in Ebonyi state. It is aimed at conquering the people by instilling fear into them for political imposition and exclusion by Gov. Umahi and his agents.

“REMOTE AND IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE VIOLENT CLASHES:

The remote causes of the killings are to be found in the oppressive and divisive political culture promoted by Gov.Umahi in Ebonyi state; his totalitarian and lawless style of administration and his rapacity for spreading mass poverty and hopelessness amongst the people as well as his lack of firmness and lack of commitment to the principles of equity, social justice and fairness. The Chairman of the Council, Hon. Chima is a political operative who perceives his being in office as an extension of Gov.Umahi’s magnanimity. He is the Governor’s man Friday and can go to any length to destroy his people, so as to demonstrate his blind loyalty to Umahi’s brutal and anti-people’s government.

“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 sharing 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.

” You may recall that in 2019, Gov.Umahi favoured the political camp of Eni Uduma Chima by conceding three of the four Cordinatorship positions in the LGA to them. Hon.Eni was allowed to hand-pick the Cordinators. This was very bad in a Council area where 90% of the political stake-holders in the party (PDP) are against the Council Chairman.

“Gov. Umahi had on 28th December, 2019 recklessly and openly told Edda people that Eni Uduma Chima would be re-elected to continue as Council Chairman in 2020. Edda people saw the Gov.’s outburst as undemocratic imposition and therefore an affront on the sovereign rights of Nde Edda to elect their own leaders. During the February, 2020 primaries to elect the Local Government Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates, the people were suppressed once again. The Governor imposed Eni once again as the PDP candidate and his main opponent was forced and blackmailed to step down. In the various wards, the situation was the same.

“In the case of Owutu ward, Hon.Eni imposed a member of his More Can Be Done group as the Councillorship candidate against the candidate endorsed by the Community in line with an old political culture of allowing Councillors from a particular village to do only one tenure while the Councillorship seat rotates to another village. As Owutu people turned out en-masse on the day of the Primaries to elect their choice for the Councillorship position, they were suppressed and an Owutu chap was shot in the hand and wounded.

“The Composition of the COVID-19 Task Force was dominated by supporters of the Council Chairman and they became over-zealous and ruthless in the discharge of their duties. They started using the position to settle scores with their perceived political opponents. These factors created tension in the communities as the More Can Be Done group of Hon.Eni left its base in Ekoli Edda to embark on expansionist drive to recruit new members in the 72 villages in Edda. This singular fight for political space raised the political tempreture to a boiling point. The lava of mass resentment soon exploded into a socio-political volcano.

“MY OWN FAMILY EXPERIENCE:

On the 8th of September, 2019, my nephew, Nnachi Uka Oji died mysteriously. Later on we gathered that he was poisoned by members of the More Can Be Done Group. Then one day, the Hatchetman to Afikpo South Local Government Chairman, Keneth Agha Okoro(alias Mukoro) confessed to the crime. When my elder Sister, Mrs. Helen Uka Oji, a widow heard his confession, she went to see Mukoro to find out why he poisoned his son to death. Mukoro was not available, but his wife, who is the Leader of Afikpo South Legislative Council, came out and started harassing my sister and in the process told her to her face that they killed his son, that she should go and do her worst. Mukoro even threatened to kill the elder brother of the deceased. So my sister consulted a lawyer and a petition was sent to the Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi state. The police are still investigating the matter.

“WHAT IS TO BE DONE:

“Gov.Umahi’s statement blaming the Police and SSS for their inability to have predicted the killings and to have stopped it is neither here nor there. And his charge to the security agencies to unravel the sources and causes of the ugly episodes is diversionary and unserious.

“The Governor should 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.

“I 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.”