Rights group cautions Uzodimma on muscling opposition, armed Fulani attacks

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

A Rights group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) has cautioned the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma to scale down his rate of
warfare against opposition parties in the state.

In a statement made available to nation update signed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf.

They frowned at the level of harassment being matted out by the administration against the major opposition platform, the People’s Democratic party(PDP).

It berated the administration and the state house of Assembly on their failure to take steps to check the growing number of attacks by armed Fulani terrorists and herdsmen in parts of the State.

Situation the group said has created the security vacuum that have impacted negatively on the wellbeing of the people as manifested by the growing rates of killings and attacks orchestrated and organised by armed Fulani herdsmen rampaging all around the farming communities in the three Senatorial zones of Orlu, Okigwe and Owerri in the last couple of Months.

It condemned the trend and strongly canvassed the passage and enforcement of a legislation to ban outdoor and open grazing of animals all over Imo State and to equip the communities to set up active vigilantes in addition to the community policing mechanism recently unveiled in the state.

HURIWA decried the palpable tension that has enveloped Obudi Agwa community in Oguta council area of Imo State following the attack and killing of an indigene of the community Elder Ozoemena Iriaka by marauding Fulani herdsmen in his farm.

It stated that the failure of the government to take decisive action has emboldened them, when the primary duty and responsibility of government is to secure the lives of the citizens just.

The Rights group said it was regrettable that even when it was further learnt that the deceased had tried to chase away the cows from his farm, an action which had angered the herdsmen who attacked him with their machetes, inflicting deep cuts on the back of his head as he tried to escape from them, the Imo State administration they said seems to be working on the theory that soon the matter would be swept under the carpets.

The group also called on the governor and the State House of Assembly to pass the Anti-open grazing law in Imo state and to stop the infiltration of the state by killer armed Fulani herdsmen.

The governor was reminded that he should not lose sight of the fact that he is the governor of Imo State, and must desist from thinking that he owes his allegiance to Abuja going by the circumstance under which he came to power.

He must govern Imo State for the benefit of Imo people and not to allow the state become a theatre of terrorism, as nothing should be left to chance to
arrest the suspected killers of 45-year-old woman, Mrs Susanna Iwuoha, after raping her.

Protesting women from Okata, Ihitte-Uboma, Imo State over the killing of Mrs Iwuoha

Mrs. Iwuoha, a mother of four from Alaocha, Umuchiaku, in Lowa-Okata autonomous community, Ihitte – Uboma Local Government Area, was found dead with her face immersed into a local stream some days after she left home for her farmland.

The Rights group said it is possible that she was killed by the same armed Fulani herdsmen who killed the elderly farmer in Oguta because the woman, whose undergarment was carted away by her attackers, was discovered by a community search party after her children raised the alarm over her disappearance since June 3.

Also, one Bernard Ekeka, who is believed to have seen the unidentified attackers, was killed according to Iwuoha’s 15-year-old daughter, Ugochi, they had earlier gone to the farm together for weeding and returned home before her mother decided to return later that day to harvest some crops.

HURIWA is charging the executive and legislative arms of the state government to pass the anti- open grazing law if there is none in the state to put to a permanent end the rampaging attacks of armed Fulani herdsmen.

The state should therefore seek ways of galvanizing a regional approach towards instituting a South -Eastern Anti-open Grazing Law and set up a regional security network to protect the region.

The Right Group took a swipe on the National Assembly for not showing commitment to the fight against sexual defilement of youngsters by rapists who have continued to unleash venomous attacks on young girls and boys around the Country.