…Says situation may slip into anarchy
The people of Ezza-Ezekuna in Ado Local Government Area of Benue State on Saturday sent a Save Our Soul (SoS) to Governor Hyacinth Alia to immediately halt the growing spate of killing of their people allegedly by the Effium people from neighbouring Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
The people said the killings which have claimed the lives of several people are capable of sliding into total chaos in Benue State if nothing is done to contain the situation.
The President General of Ezza-Ezekuna Benue Development Association (EEBDA), Hon. Perpetual Nkechi Okafor, in a statement in Makurdi which was also copied to other security agencies, said the community has become an open killing field stalked by Effium warlords from Akparata, a community sharing common border between Ado local government and Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
Hon. Okafor who is a former Secretary of the Ado local government area disclosed that four prominent people in Ezza-Ezekuna were on Friday killed at Azaoke near Apa Ogbozu in Apa council ward, Ado LGA of Benue State “by some warlords from Akparata community in Ohaukwu LGA of Ebonyi State who came to launch unprovoked attack on our people of Benue State”.
“This heart wrecking act revisits the attacks on our people in January 2021, where our people were callously killed without any reason by this same Effium warlord of Ebonyi State. Since then, we the Ezza-Ezekuna people of Benue State have not known peace because no day passes that there would be no case of killing in our community”.
She stated that all communities in the local government are now under siege by Effium warlords, adding that the scenario is about to get worse unless urgent measures are taken by the governor to avert the impending calamity in the area.
According to her, as a result of the constant attacks, residents of the community “can no longer go to market, farms and worship centres, while our children have stopped going to school for fear of being attacked and killed”.
“It is in this context, and to further forestall a situation where our peaceful community and our LGA will become a more killing field or haven, that we are pleading with you to quickly rework the security of the state, particularly to accommodate the area that is now being threatened by these Effium warlords from Ebonyi State”.
