• Army, police deploy personnel
• Obi raises concern over killings, says Nigeria like a country at war
Four days after five persons, including a couple, were gruesomely killed by gunmen in Ajana Umuna, Ezinachi, in Okigwe Local Council Area of Imo State, Governor Hope Uzodimma, yesterday, commiserated with the families of the victims, describing the incident as “unconscionable and barbaric”.
The Imo State Government, in synergy with the army, police and other security operatives in the state, has, however, deployed security personnel to the affected community to restore law and order and arrest perpetrators without delay.
This was disclosed yesterday in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information, Public Orientation and Strategy, Declan Emelumba.
A similar scenario had played out in Ideato, Imo State, some weeks ago, where scores of persons were killed in their homes in the wee hours and their bodies dragged out on their front floors by their yet-to-be identified assailants.
Emelumba disclosed that the information available to the government indicated that non-state actors swooped on local vigilante personnel, killing one and four relatives of the head of the vigilante group in that community, including a couple.
The attackers, the statement informed, set the victims’ homes and motorcycles ablaze.
Meanwhile, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has expressed concern over the worsening spate of killings, abductions, and banditry across Nigeria, warning that the country is bleeding at a scale comparable to those officially at war.
In a statement yesterday, Obi condemned the recent attack in Okigwe, Imo State, which left many dead and several others missing. He said the tragedy was yet another reminder of the “alarming insecurity reality” confronting Nigerians daily.
Citing a weekend report by Amnesty International (AI), Obi noted that the human rights body accused the Federal Government of “emboldening bandits” through its failure to protect citizens. Amnesty documented multiple attacks in just one week, including the massacre of over 50 worshippers in a Katsina Mosque, the abduction of more than 60 people in the same state, and the killing of at least 15 farmers in Mangu, Plateau State, which displaced over 200 families.
“Amnesty International revealed that in just two years of this administration, over 10,000 Nigerians have been killed by armed groups. Instead of improving security, insecurity has worsened, with new armed gangs emerging,” Obi said.
The former Anambra governor stressed the gravity of the crisis, pointing out that Nigeria, though not at war, has recorded civilian deaths comparable to Ukraine, a country under full-scale invasion.
“In two years, Nigeria’s insecurity crisis has taken almost as many civilian lives as a country under open warfare,” he lamented.
Obi urged the political class to put aside politicking and petty squabbles, insisting that the first duty of government is the protection of life and property.
