Ebonyi State governor, Chief David Umahi, has threatened to sanction local government council chairmen, development centre coordinators and traditional rulers for any further killing within their localities.
Umahi who spoke during the signing of the second phase of contracts for Ebonyi State ring roads project in Abakaliki said he would not hesitate to deploy every lawful means to suspend the aforementioned categories of people if any part of the State witnessed any further killings.
He said the monarchs should be able to identify the youths in their localities who are perpetrating the ongoing attacks and killings in the state.
The governor, however, said his government was ready to suspend all projects and empower the bandits, if they could lay down their arms, even as he warned that his administration would not tolerate further killings, saying, no more killings again in Ebonyi State.”
“Let me warn all the Local Government Council Chairmen, traditional Rulers, Development Centre Coordinators and parents that henceforth, they would be held responsible for any killing in the State.
“No any Innocent Ebonyi citizen would be killed, no more. Anybody that attempts that would end up in the jail”. Umahi warned.
He further called on everybody in the State to collaborate efforts with security agencies to ensure permanent peace in the State.
Umahi, who was angry over an allegation that those perpetrating the killings in Anambra State were Ebonyi people, described the allegation as false, adding, “if any Ebonyi person is caught in killing, that person should be killed too.”
Governor Umahi said the killings in Anambra State were political killings that had no link with Ebonyi people.
The Governor said criminals who were from other States in the South East region had been severally arrested for killings and other heinous crimes in Ebonyi State, without announcing their states of origin, and wondered why other people derive joy in tarnishing the image of Ebonyi people.
He said Ebonyi State would never be part of Biafra, “because of the marginalization and slavery that Ebonyi people had been subjected to over the years by our South-East brothers.”