Effium Killings: Ebonyi Indigenes Want Inquest Into Escape of 55 Suspects 

The Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in the Diaspora (AESID) has demanded for the prosecution of the state’s police commissioner,Aliyu Garba,over the  disappearance of the  55 suspects arrested in connection with the killings in Effium communities in the state.

They  also demanded that after thorough  investigation, security agents implicated in the dastardly acts should be dismissed.

They faulted the police narrative of the incident, stating that the authorities claim of escape came hours after the said suspected militia were handed over to the State’s Commissioner of Police, for their onward transportation to the Police Command Headquarters in Abakaliki.

They said: “That CP Garba and his men; DCOPs, DCP Chuku G.C and his orderly, Uche, 2i/c SWAT, Asp. Amaechi, Inspector Emmanuel Uko of the Anti-kidnapping Unit, Ebonyi State Police Command and other Police officers, and indeed, including the sister security agencies like some NSCDC officials involved in the said controversial escape of the arrested suspects and so indicted be made to face the full wrath of the law. They should all be diligently and uncompromisingly investigated and brought to book for their roles in the saga.Should they be found wanting in any way or form unbecoming of officers of the law, they should be summarily dismissed from service to serve as a deterrent to others who would wish to compromise or joke with the very serious issue of security which has become a nightmare in the present-day Nigeria.”

They said the  police should  re-arrest and produce the said 55 escapees for trial “as we believe that the information which they would provide and the evidences they would deduce would help in bringing these limitless killings to an end (immediate and remote).”

The Association which described the situation in Ebonyi as “a soap opera,” said it is outraged by news reports that 55 out 66 hired militias who were successfully arrested on Saturday afternoon at Okpoduma village in Effium by the Nigerian military escaped from the custody of the Nigeria Police Force.

“As a matter of fact, we are most disturbed, like other sane minds eager to see the end of the carnage and wanton destruction of lives and property particularly of Ezza descents in Effium that the said arrest of the mercenaries could only happen when the GOC led his team in a very professionally coordinated operation.

“How can an entire security apparatchik including; the Police, DSS and the NSCDC in Ebonyi who were unable to unravel the mysterious supply of arms, charms and very deadly weapons in the ongoing senseless carnage needless to talk about making any reasonable arrest of the masterminds be at the heat of a controversy leading to the fleeing of 55 already-arrested suspects?

We want to believe that it is either some conspiracy from top government officials we suspect have been funding this war were about to be busted by the said arrested and freed mercenaries or nothing, absolutely, nothing less,” it lamented.