Dave Umahi, the Ebonyi state governor has threatened to use the Ebubeagu regional security outfit to arrest former Senate President, Pius Anyim Pius; former governor of the state, Sam Egwu and other chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Ebonyi.
Umahi accused the opposition leaders of plotting to bring down his government because of his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
Umahi, who issued the threats while receiving the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 9, Mr Okon Ene, on Wednesday, also urged the police chief not to look very far when searching for those terrorizing the state because most of them were within.
According to him: “It’s very regrettable that a former governor of this state, who appropriated the wealth of this state unto himself, could be inciting a crisis in the state and incite the youths of the state and nobody is doing anything about it.
“When we had an attack on the Ngbo axis, his own local government, all he could do was to go and organise a press conference and said Fulani people came and killed the people.
“He didn’t come home to ascertain the situation and see things for himself. So, that statement incited more crises within that location.
“But the truth remains that the Agila traditional ruler was the one that hired mercenaries whether they are Fulani herdsmen or who to do the killings. And how did we know?
“The Agila traditional ruler was calling our people on the phone and intermittently giving the phone to a herder to talk to us. And the herder would talk to us and say, ‘We are with that corpse that you are looking for. We did the killing.
“Only two days ago, the same Dr Sam Egwu again started saying that the killing of the police is masterminded by Ebube Agu, which is our own internal control security. This tells you he knows about the killings.
“Let me tell you —the same Sam Egwu, Linus Okorie; I have their names: Ali Odefa, Chidiebere Egwu, Silas Onu, Amos Ogbonnaya and Fred Udeogu, are the people inciting these bandits. None of them, including Anyim Pius, has ever come out to condemn the killings in Ebonyi State.
“So, don’t look far. These are the people fighting you, these are the people killing you. This is the truth. If you want to find out, go to their Facebook and check.”
Meanwhile, the Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in Diaspora, AESID, has condemned the move by Governor Umahi to start arresting some leaders of the opposition party over insecurity.
The AESID President, Paschal Oluchukwu, in a statement made available to newsmen Friday in Abuja, said the governor should be held responsible if any evil befalls any of the opposition leaders in the state.
The association, however, called on the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali-Baba, to immediately redeploy both the State’s Commissioner of Police, Garba Aliyu and the AIG, Zone 9, Etem Ene-Okon, saying both might have become willing tools in the hands of the governor.
The association recalled how Mr Umahi’s audio clip surfaced online in which he threatened to use Ebubeagu security outfit to arrest and deal with members of the National Assembly and other leaders of the opposition party in the state.
The AESID said: “To this end therefore, we call on the security agencies to hold Umahi accountable should any evil or attack befall the listed and unlisted PDP stakeholders whom he has vowed to deal with using the supposed Ebubeagu outfit which ordinarily should be a regional security platform that would have been more concerned about manning the porous Ebonyi borders.
“While we condemn in strongest terms, this imminent threats on the lives of Ebonyi opposistion leaders, we wish to once again appeal to Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba to IMMEDIATELY redeploy both the State’s Commissioner of Police, Garba Aliyu and the said AIG, Zone 9, Etem Ene Okon as we believe that the both have already become very willing tools in the evil hands of the Governor.
“But it appears the Governor is not only remaining on a free fall but wants total anarchy in our once peaceful State. The live and let live, stay in your party and let others remain in their sermon that AESID have been preaching to the Governor appears to have utterly fallen on deaf ears.”
While expressing shock over the statements credited to the governor, the group condemned the resort to name-calling by governor Umahi.
“Again, we condemn this baseless resort to name-callings and onslaughts against elders of the PDP for the simple reason that they saw very cogent reasons to remain in the PDP when the Governor embarked on his rather solitary sojourn to the ruling APC.
“Whereas as a group we, just like the rest of Ebonyians may have no problems with his decision to dump the party that gave him their all since his political journey, we are irked by his unfortunate lies and desperation to play politics with everything in the state including security issues as represented in his claim in the said audio clip.”
