Youths protest death of Ebonyi commissioner

Following the death of the former Commissioner for Infrastructure Development, Fidelis Nweze, a youth group known as Irate Youths from Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have protested the death of the commissioner.

The group who took their protest from Onueke disrupted both vehicular and human movement along the Abakaliki-Afikpo Express Road.

Recall that Nweze died on Tuesday in an Abuja hospital from complications arising from surgery.

According to findings, Nweze underwent the surgery to correct a perforated intestine injury from the accident he had on Saturday.

Governor David Umahi announced the death of the commissioner at the New Government House Abakaliki, yesterday.

The youths had besieged the express road in their numbers chanting songs and carried placards with inscriptions like, “We need Investigation into Nweze’s death”, “Engr Nweze’s death, one too many”, “Furnish us with more details into his mysterious death”, among others.

They used tyres and empty drums to block the road thereby forcing travellers to either wait or return back to Abakaliki.

Several efforts by some stakeholders of the area to calm the situation down proved abortive as all their appeals fell on deaf ears.

The youths also trooped to the Ezza South-East Development Centre headquarters and vandalised many of the office equipment and the building while expressing their anger over the death of the commissioner.

It took the quick intervention of security personnel who mobilised to the area to restore normalcy and also pave the way for motorists and commuters travelling through the area to continue their journey.

Some of the protesters who spoke expressed sadness over the death of the commissioner and called for an investigation to unravel the real cause of the death.

Chinedu Nworie, a beneficiary of Nweze’s empowerment programme described the death as an unfortunate and colossal loss to the youth of the state.

He called on the Enugu State Government to urgently relocate the tanker drivers that usually park along the Eke-Obinagu axis of the Enugu-Abakaliki Express Road.

He noted that hundreds of motorists and commuters have lost their lives along the axis while many others spend several hours as a result of traffic congestion occasioned by the huge number of trucks that park along the two sides of the express road.

Nworie noted that if urgent steps are not taken to decongest the area, “the tendency for continuous accidents and traffic congestion along the express road remains.”

Another beneficiary, Mrs Chineye Uwa commended the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi for declaring today, Wednesday, a public holiday and urged him to immortalise the commissioner for his contribution to the development of the state.

Meanwhile, all the major markets, shops and other business centres within and outside Abakaliki metropolis complied with the directive of the state government to observe today as a public holiday in respect to the departed commissioner.

Similarly, the State Christian Association of Nigeria has also commenced a three-day fasting and prayer over the death of Engr Nweze and Engr Uche Okah, Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development who also died recently.

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