…Uzodinma blames DSS

Hundreds of youths drawn from Awo Omamma, Mgbidi, Amiri and other neighbouring communities joined youths of Otulu community in Oru East, yesterday morning, to protest the high-handedness and alleged acts of impunity and extrajudicial killings levelled against Ebubeagu operatives in Imo State. This is also as vehicular activities along the Owerri – Onitsha Express road was yesterday grounded to a halt following the active blockade of the highway by youths from more than four communities in Oru East and Oru West council areas, who were protesting the unprovoked killing of seven young men from Otulu who were returning from a wedding in Awo-Omamma on Sunday evening. Ebubeagu is a vigilance outfit set up by the Imo State government which reports to the government and largely, not answerable to the Imo State Police command.

For a long time, the activities of the outfit have steadily been trailed by gory tales of extrajudicial killings and blatant roguery. Things came to a head on Sunday evening following the killing of the seven wedding guests from Otulu. The protesters who brandished placards with various inscriptions including: “Ebubeagu is a criminal gang”, “Say no to Ebubeagu”, “We demand justice for the killing of our brothers”, “Uzodinma stop killing our people” and several others maintained that the people killed were innocent and that government should regulate the activities of the Ebubeagu outfit. One of the protesters, Mezie Amanfo said: “The entire Oru nation is here gathered – Oru East and Oru West – we are on a daily basis terrorised by operatives of Ebubeagu to the extent that we no longer sleep with our eyes closed. These innocent young men slained by Ebubeagu is a witness to what we have had to endure for too long. Their excesses are now beyond us, and we call on government to put an end to these harassment and terrorism in our land.” Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, apparently in a haste to cover up the atrocious killing of the young men by the state-sponsored outfit, said that the seven wedding guests were shot and killed in a DSS operation.

Uzodinma went ahead to aver that the slained were bandits who were killed in their camp. The assertion of the governor seemed to have further inflamed the tempers of the affected communities as they defied the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) of the Nigerian Army and several military patrol vehicles to stage a massive protest for hours on the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway. Faulting the governor’s assertion, Chidozie Ekesinachi, elder brother to Ifechi Ekesinachi and Chukwuemeka Ekesinachi who were both victims of the Ebubeagu killing maintained that his two siblings and others were killed in cold blood by the state government sponsored Ebubeagu Operatives and were not killed at any camp, but nearby where they had gone for the traditional wedding of their kinsman, Chijioke Nnanna. According to him, “Ifechi who was 18 years and Chukwuemeka 20 years were shot dead by members of Ebubeagu last Sunday after a traditional wedding of one of our kinsman, held at Awo-Omamma in Oru East Council Area of Imo State.”

“It was same Sunday evening that one of our kinsman rushed to our house to inform me that all those who went to the traditional wedding have been killed. “I rushed off with him to find out if my brothers were safe, it was around Afor Awo market that I saw my brother Ifechi lying dead on the road and I broke down in tears. I was still crying on his dead body when Ebubeagu operatives appeared and dragged me into their truck with others who were also searching for their brothers.

“They took us to their office at Oru East council headquarters in Omuma . They tied my hands behind my back with my belt and beat me to their satisfaction, not minding that I told them that the corpse was my younger brother, they locked me up in the cell in Omuma till the next day.” Reacting to the killing also, former House of Representatives member for Owerri Federal Constituency and Senatorial candidate, Hon. Uche Onyeagucha described the killings as horrific, while stating that Uzodinma’s hands are already soiled with the blood of innocent youths. Hon. Onyeagucha described as disheartening and provocative the cold-blooded execution of Imo youths on a daily basis.

“This mindless killing spree has continued unremittingly. It is heartbreaking to note that since the unfortunate imposition of Hope Uzodimma by Justice Tanko’s Supreme Court in January 2020, more than 3000 innocent Imo citizens have been butchered by government sponsored gunmen.” Also Reacting to the killings, a human rights activist, Eze Eluchie said: “Before the advent of the Hope Uzodinma administration, Imo State was unequivocally very peaceful. We had a flourishing nightlife, travel across the state even at night was without problems, we didn’t have over 1,800 inmates walk away from the Owerri prisons, we didn’t have the rampant killings now routine in Orlu and Okigwe axis, we didn’t have traditional rulers shot at and killed when they attend meetings. The United Nations had actually asserted, in its 2016 Human Development Index Report, that the South-East was the safest and most peaceful zone in Nigeria.”