New Telegraph

Osinbajo: Victims of Ebonyi massacre must get justice

  • Umahi raises alarm over another planned attack

 

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday vowed that victims of the herdsmen killings in four communities in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State must get justice.

 

This was as Governor Dave Umahi has raised the alarm over another planned attack in the state by suspected herdsmen. Osinbajo said anybody who watched another person kill next to him and did not feel angry and pain and did not feel that the person deserved justice, must answer to God.

 

The VP stated this at Egedegede community, one of the affected communities, while addressing the people.

 

Osinbajo was on the visit with the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, Minister of State for Power and Steel, Dr. Sampson Uche Ogah, and other ministers.

The VP, who decried the killings and destruction of properties, urged the people not to take laws into their hands but allow the Federal Government secure justice for the victims.

 

He said: “This massacre is very sad indeed and very unfortunate. I am here just not by myself, I am here also at the direction of Mr. President. At times when things like this happen, when people are killed, when incidents like this happen, you feel particularly outraged.

 

“The reason is that those who have been mercilessly massacred are people like you and I who have hopes and aspirations; young ones, females and children who are people who woke up in the morning and are expected to go about their normal businesses, they are expected to go out and fend for themselves but they ended up dead not because of anything they have done wrong but because of cowardly wicked act by some other people who live in the same community with them.

 

“I sympathise with not just the governor and the people of Ebonyi State but in particular people of the communities that have been affected.

 

These peaceful communities; communities that have lived with the assilants for many years. I think that what we have seen here is very cowardly and wickedness and all of us condemn it and we say that it must not be allowed to happen again….

 

“Let me assure you that we will seek justice on behalf of those who have died not just because they are Nigerians but because they are human beings and deserve justice.”

 

The Vice President later visited Effium community where over 100 lives were lost in the lingering crisis. Addressing the Vice President, Umahi raised the alarm on the alleged plan  for another attack in the state by herders. The governor called on the Federal Government to do everything possible to prevent the planned attack.

 

He said: “I want to thank you and thank Mr. President for this prompt action you have taken to visit this peace loving community. We are touched and we are encouraged by this visit.

 

Your Excellency, we woke on the morning of Tuesday the 30th March to hear the shocking news of the unprovoked massacre of not less than 20. E

 

veryday, they continue to discover dead bodies from the bushes around. “What happned was that these people divided themselves and were going towards the communities. So, every okada with the passenger were hacked down. Initially, they were using knives, so nobody knew what was happening until they got to the communities and that was where they started shooting and that was the time the people got to know and the villagers mobilised and started pursuing them.

 

I am told when we visited over the attack that the murderers left a telephone, even three days later, the telephone was still ringing and I am happy that what the communities have been hiding from government, they have given it to you and I am told it contains the call logs, it contains pictures of the murderers, it contains their contacts; who are they calling, who is calling them? Your Excellency, these things are enough to get these people apprehended.

 

“If government fails to do something sir, it will be on record that the people did their best by providing these very vital information.

 

The killers are not hidden, they are there sir with their pictures, the call logs. I am told there is a particular person they were calling, they call him Bishop Frank Shakespeare, and they called him before the attack, called him after the attack. Your Excellency, I am told there are over 50 contacts there

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