Police declare Enugu peaceful, urge youths to maintain calm

CLO blames govt for protests, sets up probe panel

Enugu State is very calm and peaceful, despite nationwide protests, says the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Department, Celestine Okoye.

The supervisory DIG of South East geo-political zone, who made the disclosure when he visited Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi at the Government House, Enugu, appealed to youths in the state to maintain peace, urging them not to allow miscreants destroy what their fathers suffered for.

Revealing that those who caused mayhem in Enugu were not from the state, Okoye charged the youths to be vigilant and avert further mayhem.He charged parents to advise their wards against violence and criminality, as “Enugu is very calm.”

Enugu Commissioner of Police (CP), Ahmad Abdurrahman, accompanied him to the visit. His words: “I am proud of this state. Enugu has made me proud and happy because as I entered Enugu, we hovered around and I realised that the state is very calm.”

HOWEVER, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has identified government’s failure to meet the expectations of the citizens over the years as the major cause of violence across the country.

South East zonal chairman of the group, Aloysius Attah, stated yesterday that the average Nigerian youth was disenchanted with the political leaders and several cases of injustice and extra-judicial killings in the country.

According to him, the mindless killings and state-backed massacre of unarmed protesters have risen to unimaginable heights in the last five years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, leading to youth restiveness.

The group said the army of unemployed youths in the South East was agitated because their governors had not shown the leadership capacity required to not only assuage their feelings but also get them meaningfully engaged.

Bayelsa chapter of CLO has set up a five-man panel to investigate cases of police brutality, human rights violation and other forms of impunity by security operatives in the state.

Inaugurating the committee in Yenagoa yesterday, the chairman, Chief Nengi James, said the setting up of the committee was expedient as residents had suffered and endured cases of brutality and other civil rights abuses in the hands of security operatives over time.

He called on members of the public, particularly those who suffered police brutality and harassment, to submit testimonies and memoranda, adding that findings of the committee would be submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Abuja.