Ebonyi State Governor, Chief David Umahi, yesterday, ordered the immediate arrest of his deputy chief of staff, Prof. Fidelis Okpata, and other political appointees who hail from the warring Ekpomaka and Inyimagu communities in Abakaliki and Ikwo council areas of the state. Umahi gave the order at an enlarged security meeting at the Executive Council Chambers, Government House, Abakaliki, which had security chiefs and stakeholders from both council areas in attendance.
The governor directed the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Titus Lamorde, who was at the meeting, to arrest the appointees and stakeholders from the two warring communities and detain them until peace was restored. The order, Daily Sun gathered, followed the persistent hostilities between residents of the communities in which lives and property worth millions of naira were reportedly lost.
The chief press secretary to the governor, Mr. Emmanuel Uzor, who confirmed that his principal gave the order, did not give any concrete reason behind it.
“I am sad that there is still crisis in these communities, despite the fact that we set up a committee in this state to look into the matter. We pleaded with the communities to cease fire and await the outcome of the committee’s report, but it does appear that they do not want to give peace a chance.
“I, therefore, order the Commissioner of Police to arrest all the stakeholders and political office holders from the communities. Without looking back, all of you in this Executive Council Chamber are under arrest. I want the Commissioner of Police to detain you people until peace returns to the communities,” a statement from Uzor partly read.
Fresh hostilities broke out in both communities on February 25, and since then lives and property have been reportedly lost, prompting the state government to set up a committee chaired by the first vice president of the Ebonyi State Council of Traditional Rulers, Ezeogo Romanus Iyioku.
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