The Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in the Diaspora (AESID) on Sunday, urged the Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, to fish out abductors of children from Enyibichiri, Izzi in Abakaliki Local Government Area of the state.
AESID in a statement said the abduction followed the renewed hostility between the people of the local government and the people of Echialike, Ikwo, Ikwo local government area of Ebonyi state over land dispute.
President of the group, Amb. Paschal Oluchukwu, described news of the abduction of the children as perturbing, adding that “”though we had condemned this renewed hostilities, we find this latest news of abduction of under-aged children most perturbing. As parents, we cannot imagine how traumatized their wards and parents must have been since the ugly news of their abduction broke.
Regretting that the two communities had remained peaceful and peace-loving brothers before now, Amb. Paschal alleged that the Governor “has always threatened to incite wars against brothers as part of his political strategies to deal with his opponents and those he consider enemies.”
He challenged therefore Umahi to “deny the fingers pointing at him that it is possible he may have deployed his usual style of cutting the trees in the bush and at the same time rushing out of the road to ask; who is behind the wood-cutting in the bush?”
It disclosed that it “is worried and tempted to again, demand that the world must blame Umahi’s reprehensible laxity for not nipping this ugly incident in the bud not only as the Chief Security Officer of the State but also as one who is known for playing politics with every damn affair or issue in the state.
This is as the group’s president also accused the Governor of asking the detained Majority Leader of the State House of Assembly, Engr. Humphrey Nwuruku, to defect to the All Progressives Congress as condition for his release.
While wondering how a once-peaceful state has become a spectacle of communal wars since 2015, the group said was worse since January 22nd when the Effium killings started.
“From attacks between indigenous Effium natives Versus Ezza-Effium in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi North to Iyionu in Ishielu in Ebonyi Central and Ikwo versus Izzi in the same Central Senatorial zone to Ishinkwo Ukawu versus Abaomege (who are still Ekumenyi brothers) in Ebonyi South, is it not reasonable to suspect that these could all be part of the desperate antics of Governor Umahi to make sure that the Umuekumenyi brothers does not have a common voice when they go into elections in 2023?
“Already, some political pundits have also wondered why it is Ikwo which has the largest political wards in the State with as much as 20 political wards of any LGA in the State and the Izzi that is one of the clans with largest number of voters that would suddenly be up in arms against one another. When will Umahi return our beloved state to the peaceful path he met it and end these persistent bloodsheds?
It therefore demanded the immediate release of the alleged abducted kids, as it urged leaders from Umuekumenyi to convoke a stakeholders meeting involving all youths and key stakeholders, to address the challenges confronting the communities,” it asserted.
