Fish out killers of police officers within seven days, Umahi orders Ebonyi LG chairmen

Governor Dave Umahi has asked chairmen of three local government areas in Ebonyi State to fish out killers of police officers within the next seven days.

Umahi, however, noted that the perpetrators of violence may be granted amnesty should they surrender within the timeframe.

He who said this at the New Government House, Abakaliki when the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Celestine Okoye, paid him a courtesy visit on the heels of recent attacks on police formations and personnel in the state.

The governor said: “I have called the three Local Government Chairmen and the coordinators to task you. The people that came to destroy us are from these three local government areas. They have shown themselves.

“Some of them that have bullet wounds and have also confessed. So, I have called you to demand that you bring them to me. I am going to be giving you seven days to bring them to me and there will be no excuses.

“There are two ways we can approach it. If you bring them, I can show them amnesty and rehabilitate them but if you don’t bring them, I will fish them out of the forest.”

Umahi, however, said that the state has set aside N2.6 billion naira for over 2,600 youths drawn from the 13 council areas of the state.

According to the governor, there is an urgent need for the youth to be economically empowered and to steer clear off every form of violence.

He added that the empowerment will go a long way in giving the youth sound economic footing because an “idle man is in popular parlance, a devil’s workshop.”

The governor also appealed for peace and ceasefire while explaining his readiness to rehabilitate the youth who have gone the wrong way of looting, killing and destroying government property in the state.

He then urged all to join the onerous tasks of building the state for greater economic growth, development and prosperity.

“My position as the governor of Ebonyi State is that whether you are IPOB, militants, criminals, or cultists, I have put down the SME fund, the loan we got from the CBN to give it to you and that is 2.6bn. That will be for 200 people per LGA.

“Again and again, I call on the youth, the good, the bad, the ugly, we have 2.6 bn. We want the local government chairmen, the coordinators, let us identify these 200 people.

“Not when we ask you to do these, you go and write to your brothers and sisters that are working or on government appointment. We need to take 200 youths off the streets.

“So, we believe we can rehabilitate these people, retrain them and then get them something doing. It is an olive branch which I am to them. The good ones and the bad ones can also benefit from it.”

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