Killers Of Policemen Will Be Brought To Justice, South East Governors Vow

Governors of the South East States have condemned the killing of two policemen in Anambra State, vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Recall that two policemen were butchered in Anambra with their bodies lying on tarred road while some heavily armed young men stood over them in a video released by the perpetrators days go.

The third policeman has not been seen and his body not recovered yet, in an incident described as hate crime by President Muhamnadu Buhari.

The incident has attracted criticisms especially as the perpetrators announced themselves as Eastern Security Network, an armed wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, whose leader Nnamdi Kanu is standing trial for various offences.

The governors however said the authenticity of the video will be ascertained while pointing out that similar cases in the past were found out to have happened outside Nigeria when the videos were subjected to forensic review.

Nonetheless, they promised to ensure that justice is done concerning the matter.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Governor of Ebonyi State and Chairman, South East Governors’ Forum, David Umahi after a virtual emergency meeting on Tuesday.

“We condemn in strong terms the video clip and write-up we saw in some social and print media where two policemen were said to have been killed and their heads cut-off by youths who styled themselves as members of IPOB/ESN,” the statement said.

Continuing, the governors said, “We have resolved among ourselves to work with security agencies to determine the authenticity of this video/report and if found to be true, to apprehend the perpetrators by all possible means to face the law.

“We are aware of similar videos in the past and which when subjected to forensic review were found out to have happened outside Nigeria.

“We assure Nigerians especially the Police community that we will not rest until we have done justice to this matter.”

The governors warned all criminals killing people in the name of IPOB and the Eastern Security Network to immediately stop.

They said, “We are aware that the insecurity and killings in South East have gone beyond IPOB/ESN as any criminal finds it easy to hide under such a name to commit crimes.

“We are determined to do everything to protect the lives and properties of our people. Our youths are advised to leverage on the various empowerment and agricultural programmes by our Governors to better their lives.”

On the issue of agitation by the youths, the governors said they were “reviewing the work of Ohaneze Ndigbo committees on this matter and will soon call a larger stakeholders’ meeting to address such.

“All issues relating to the agitation and its fallout are better settled politically and on a negotiation table and we thank the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR for his consideration of a political solution to this problem. He has demonstrated that he is a good father who listens to his children.

“We urge our people to resume their Monday businesses as we assure them of adequate security.

“We thank all our security agencies for their commitment to securing the lives and properties of our people in the South East and we assure them of our continued support as they discharge their duties.”