Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has threatened to bring the full weight of the law to bear on some prominent citizens of the state for inciting violence.
Umahi issued the threat while receiving the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 9, Mr Okon Ene, late on Wednesday.
The governor urged the police chief not to look very far when searching for those terrorizing the state because most of them were within.
He said, “It’s very regrettable that a former governor of this state, who appropriated the wealth of this state unto himself, could be inciting a crisis in the state and incite the youths of the state and nobody is doing anything about it.
“When we had an attack on the Ngbo axis, his own local government, all he could do was to go and organise a press conference and said Fulani people came and killed the people.
“He didn’t come home to ascertain the situation and see things for himself. So, that statement incited more crises within that location.
“But the truth remains that the Agila traditional ruler was the one that hired mercenaries whether they are Fulani herdsmen or who to do the killings. And how did we know?
“The Agila traditional ruler was calling our people on the phone and intermittently giving the phone to a herder to talk to us. And the herder would talk to us and say, ‘We are with that corpse that you are looking for. We did the killing.
“Only two days ago, the same Dr Sam Egwu again started saying that the killing of the police is masterminded by Ebube Agu, which is our own internal control security. This tells you he knows about the killings.
“Let me tell you —the same Sam Egwu, Linus Okorie; I have their names: Ali Odefa, Chidiebere Egwu, Silas Onu, Amos Ogbonnaya and Fred Udeogu, are the people inciting these bandits. None of them, including Anyim Pius, has ever come out to condemn the killings in Ebonyi State.
“So, don’t look far. These are the people fighting you, these are the people killing you. This is the truth. If you want to find out, go to their Facebook and check.”
He accused his traducers of seeking to bring down his administration because of his decision to ditch the Peoples Democratic Party to join the All Progressives Congress.
The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius, neither picked his calls nor did he respond to a test message sent to him on the subject as of the time of filing this report.
However, the state PDP Publicity Secretary, Silas Onu, said the governor was vilifying the party leaders out of political vendetta.
The party expressed disappointment that the governor chose to play cheap politics at a time when he should be discussing serious security issues with the visiting police boss.
Also, a former lawmaker, who represented the Ohaozara-Onicha-Ivo constituency in the House of Representatives, Linus Okorie, denied the allegation by Umahi that he was masterminding crises in the state.
In a telephone interview, Okorie said, “I totally deny the accusation of inciting violence whether in Ebonyi or any other place. I am a man of peace whose antecedents in pursuing the course of humanity is manifestly established through the Caring Heart Foundation.
“I am also surprised that Governor Umahi would suddenly accuse me of instigating violence when for all the years we worked together before he defected to the APC, he cannot point to one case of violence on my part. Indeed, he never once alluded to that to me. Why now? If not, political vendetta is located in my refusal to join him in the APC.”
(Punch)