PDP Senators Recount ‘Gruesome Murder’ By Herdsmen In Ebonyi As Senate Urges Investigation

The Senate has mandated the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to thoroughly investigate the killing of scores of persons and the destruction of property worth millions in communities in Ebonyi State.

Debating a motion sponsored by Senator Sam Egwu, Ebonyi PDP, the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly mandated the Police boss to do a comprehensive investigation into the killings and kidnapping of citizens in Ebonyi State by alleged herdsmen.

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The Senate’s resolution asserted an “urgent need for the federal government’s intervention to end the serial killing of innocent and defenceless citizens in Ebonyi State by alleged herdsmen.”

Senator Egwu further expressed concern that “the killing, maiming, kidnapping and wanton destruction of lives and property by herdsmen have now become the daily experience of citizens of innocent and defenceless people of Ebonyi State who are murdered in their numbers almost on weekly basis.”

In her resolution, the Upper Chamber expressed concern that on the 30th day of March 2021, over 18 indigenes of Egedege, Obehi and Amuzu communities in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, including a priest, were gruesomely murdered in cold blood by alleged herdsmen.

It also recognized that on Monday the 12th day of April 2021, alleged herdsmen also invaded Otuebu, Igidi Obu and Ndiagu Ibe-Agba villages in Umuogudu Akpu community, Ohaukwu LGA of Ebonyi State and gruesomely killed over 12 innocent indigenes, burnt/destroyed over 56 houses and kidnapped five persons.

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Flowing from this, the lawmakers expressed concern that if the federal government does not intervene urgently, the dastardly killings, kidnapping and destruction of property may continue.

In his contribution, Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu North) advocated for inter-agency interventions that would put a halt to herder killings across the country.

He said: “The most important part of our time spent here has always been about reportage of killings of our people in the hands of herdsmen.

“This is becoming very worrisome, that in a country that is under the rule of law, issues of this nature keep repeating themselves daily.

” To solve this herder issue, we should make out time to have inter-agency meetings to sit down and see how we can return to these rules of engagement that can allow us to do business without let or hindrance. With that, I say that something urgent has to be done.”

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On his part, Senator Michael Nnachi (PDP, Ebonyi South), lamented the number of lives lost to communal clashes among communities and to herdsmen killings.

According to him, the ceaseless killings had made citizens in Ebonyi State to live in fear.

“I got a call that nobody slept at Abakaliki in fear of the herdsmen attacking them last night because they got signal that they were around. All of them ran into their houses.”

He said in less than three weeks, over 33 people were killed by herdsmen while over seven hundred people lost their lives to communal clashes between Benue, Effium and Ezza.

The Upper Chamber thereafter observed a minute of silence in honour of those killed by the attacks, as it urged the federal government and Ebonyi State government to put appropriate measures in place to forestall further attacks.

The Senate also requested the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to immediately intervene through the provision of relief materials to the families of the victims and displaced persons in affected communities.

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It also directed the Nigerian Police and other relevant security agencies to carry out a comprehensive investigation of the dastardly attacks and to promptly arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, as well as rescue kidnap victims that are still held captive.

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