….‘Bandits committing crime in Igboland under ESN guise’
Southeast Governors Forum on Thursday raised the alarm about a plot to instigate war in the region.
Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, who is also the Chairman of the Forum, David Umahi, however, did not name those behind such a plot while making the allegation.
But Umahi assured that operatives of the newly-launched Ebube Agu, the regional security outfit, have already been deployed.
The Ebonyi governor made this allegation in his reaction to the rising insecurity in the Southeast, where gunmen have already attacked many police stations and killer-herders have sacked communities, especially in Ebonyi.
Umahi, who spoke on Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily, also said bandits were committing crime in the region under the guise of the Eastern Security Network set up by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra.
Umahi said governors would not allow illegality to reign in the region, saying this was why they launched the Ebube Agu vigilante outfit.
The Ebonyi governor said, “Of late, we have bandits that are now doing a lot of evil and saying that they are of the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
“They commit a lot of crime and say they are IPOB members and most of the time, IPOB would say: ‘We have no hands in this, we have no hands in that.”
Umahi, who admitted that the development has complicated crime fighting in the region, he vowed that leaders of the region would not allow criminals to have a field day in the area.
He maintained that Ebube Agu would tackle insecurity in Igboland.
“We have the command of the law to protect the lives of our people and we would not allow illegality to thrive in our land. Conflict will not resolve conflict,” he said.
He added that farmer-herder clashes are not the only threat facing the region.
Umahi alleged that there was a plot to incite war in the Southeast, warning the people not to fall for such plans.
Umahi said, “The problem of this country is that people will leave their problems and make your problem their problem.
“But what some of these people are doing is to incite the Southeast into war and step aside, and we are not going to buy into that; we’re not going to be deceived again.”
Asked whether Ebebe Agu was being communicated to the people so that they can take ownership of it, the governor said, “Whether it inspires confidence or not, it does not matter to me.
“What matters to me is that our people will be satisfied with our efforts in protecting their lives and property.
“People must be very careful, and know that there are grand plans by people who have no interest in the Southeast to incite them into war and we are wiser than that.”
Umahi said men of the Ebube Agu have been deployed to quell pockets of disturbances in parts of the zone.
He said the outfit was already doing tremendously well in assisting other conventional security apparatus to combat kidnapping, banditry and other forms of crime.
The governor noted that governors of the zone would ensure adequate funding of the outfit to guarantee optimum productivity.
Umahi appealed for assistance from the Federal Government to enable states to domesticate the fight against insecurity according to their peculiarities.
“Security is number one before health and education because it is he who is alive that can talk about education.
“We must commend Mr President but we continue to request that whatever resources are available at the centre should be used to assist states because they are currently going through all kinds of challenges,” he said.
He said measures have been put in place to ensure that Ebube Agu would not be hijacked by politicians over time.
“We already have security men and we are going to be expanding it. We have deployed them and they are working and they are going to be effective.
“Everyone has to operate within the confines of the law to ensure that it is not hijacked by politicians,” he said without explaining how the recruitment for the newly launched outfit was carried out.
On the attack in Ohaukwu in Ebonyi, in which at least 15 people were killed, Umahi warned leaders to desist from what he described as extreme politics in order not to plunge the nation into anarchy.
“The country is going into extreme politics because we have departed from the culture of hard work and we must go back to the drawing board.
“We have deployed security and we have deployed Ebube Agu there and we are going to make sure such an attack does not happen again.
“We have identified the flashpoints and we are interfacing with the Nigeria Police Force to establish a buffer zone within the area,” Umahi said.
