Group Condemns Killings in Anambra, Calls for Punishment of Perpetrators
Ugo Aliogo
The League of Anambra Professionals has condemned the widespread grievous criminality which has gripped Anambra State and the South-east in general in the guise of agitations.
The group in a statement signed and made available to THISDAY by the President, League of Anambra Professionals, Mr. Chijioke Okoli, (SAN), noted that the largescale bloodletting and arson which have left Anambra state tethering on the brink of anarchy for some months now descended to a new low in the past couple of weeks.
The statement warned of the dire consequences when criminal elements started their systematic delegitimization of the law enforcement agencies with the murder of policemen and burning of their stations.
The statement revealed that the predictability of evil has fixed in its infernal scorecard extremities like the beheading of the legislator representing Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s constituency in the State House of Assembly, Dr. Okey Okoye, and the pregnant young lady, Hajira Jubril, murdered with her four little children.
“Similarly, in an obvious threat against holding last year’s gubernatorial election in Anambra State, the bloodthirsty miscreants attacked a political gathering by then Candidate Soludo, the acknowledged front-runner, and killed four policemen providing security there. In condemning that dastardly act then, we had called on all the gubernatorial aspirants to condemn it publicly but none of them heeded the call,” the statement said.
The group used the opportunity to extend their heartfelt condolences to the families of all the victims of the present unrest in Anambra State.
The statement affirmed that with particular reference to the late Hajira, they hasten to remind themselves of the cosmopolitan nature of the state and its people.
The statement noted that Anambrarians readily make home of far flung and most challenging places, even as they readily accept strangers in their homeland, adding that in the predominant Christian faith of the populace and indeed in Igbo cosmology, accommodation of the peaceable stranger is an article of faith.
The group commended the state government for full participation in the burial of late Hajira, and the commitment to apprehension of the murderers and due assurances to non-indigenes, especially those from the Northern States.
The statemen added: “It is against this backdrop that we find most distasteful the mischievous narrative championed by the Daily Trust newspaper that the murder of Hajira and her little children, a completely abhorrent evil act, was ethnic in nature. It was not. It was a random act of bestiality which the perpetrators have been known for. From unrefuted reports, the commercial motorcycle on which they were being ferried ran into an ‘operation’ by the gunmen and were fired at.
“It is noteworthy that Anambra state indigenes have borne much greater brunt of the murderous activities of these criminal gangs running amok in our homeland. Among the countless fatalities are high-profile Anambrarians such as Chief Gab Ofoma, one of Nigeria’s foremost estate surveyors and an Nnewi High Chief and the 88-year-old Professor emeritus I. O. Onyemelukwe who was killed in his car and in the presence of his wife. The case of Dr. Chike Akunyili last year arrested national attention just as the current ones. Added to these insufferable casualties is the heavy toll taken on the economy of Anambra State, with the concomitant dire consequences for the residents and government revenue.
“It is axiomatic that care and circumspection must be deployed by every responsible citizen and organization in the present circumstances. We therefore commend the response of The Presidency which has counseled against drawing hasty conclusions from unverified, incendiary posts and videos on social media. Many of the social media posts are invariably doctored or are outrightly false and designed to inflame passions.”
