The human rights lawyer on Saturday said Governor Ugwuanyi left people of the state in the hands of monstrous criminals and had become a Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
The former Chairman of Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has said that Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has abandoned the state to criminal gangs, cultists and killers to ravage the residents as they wish.
The human rights lawyer on Saturday said Governor Ugwuanyi left people of the state in the hands of monstrous criminals and had become a Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
“Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has abandoned the state to cultists, criminal gangs, and killers while he relocates to work as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Wike in Rivers State. Enugu people have a choice to make,” Odinkalu said on his Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/ChidiOdinkalu/status/1601568174440206336
Enugu State has lately become a killing field for armed herdsmen and other heinous armed criminal elements including cultists since Governor Ugwuanyi came to power.
SaharaReporters has reported several and continuous killings and destruction of properties in many communities in the state, particularly in Agu-Amede community in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo Local Government Area by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
In November, the killer-herdsmen reportedly killed no fewer than 10 persons and wounded many others in one of their attacks, causing the residents to desert the community.
It had been reported that armed Fulani herdsmen sacked over 14 local villages in Agu-Amede and Mgbuji communities since the second quarter of 2021.
It was also reported that so many people had been killed with properties worth millions of naira destroyed.
Also, many people including children had been kidnapped by the same armed herdsmen who used Benue State as a launching base.
A community leader, Augustine Odoh, had told SaharaReporters that in all the attacks, no government security came to their aid.
"Our people cannot confront them with bare hands. They come in their numbers with AK-47 rifles and other dangerous weapons, shooting and destroying houses for hours unchallenged.
"The government will only deploy soldiers in communities in other South-East states to hound and kill members of pro-Biafra groups especially the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) but same soldiers cannot be deployed to our communities to stop herdsmen and Islamic terrorists’ attacks.
"That is the hypocrisy in this government. In my community now people see soldiers and other security agents as sympathisers and collaborators of the Islamic terrorists masquerading as herdsmen who are trying to conquer our lands."
In most of these reported attacks and killings, SaharaReporters' efforts to get reaction from the Enugu State Police Command have not been successful as the spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, does not take his calls.
On Saturday morning, gunmen enforcing a purported five-day sit-at-home order issued by Finland-based Simon Ekpa, in Enugu State attacked and burnt a police patrol vehicle at New Market area in the state metropolis.