An Enugu based pressure group, the Enugu Rescue Group, ERG, has disagreed with the Administrator of Ezeagu North Development Area, Mr. Okwudili Onuorah over his claim in a national daily that Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s Ikeoha Foundation Free Eye Treatment Project was recently attacked and disrupted in Ezeagu because of unlawful assembly and absence of eye specialists to carry out the project.
The group made its stand known in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Martin Okenwa and made available to newsmen in Enugu on Sunday, describing Hon. Onuorah’s claims as a “fallacious attempt to justify the unjustifiable.”
The ERG said: “Our diligent findings show that there is no element of truth in the claims by the Administrator of Ezeagu North Development Area, whom allegedly colluded with his Ezeagu South Development Area counterpart, Mr. Chukwudi Ezinwa, to lead the attack by thugs on the philanthropic gesture, which left many people seriously wounded and medical equipment and medications worth millions of Naira destroyed.
“First, the medical outreach by the Ikeoha Foundation was in conjunction with the Community Eye Savers, a duly registered non-governmental organisation with fully qualified and duly certified medical professionals who did not need any special approval from the Ministry of Health to carry out their professional and organisational duties. The team comprised of five Doctors of Optometry, OD, and three nurses, including Dr. Uzowuru O.B, OD; Dr Davidson Woko, OD; Dr Chidinma Ugwa, OD; Dr Godswill Ofoegbu, OD; and Dr Uchenna Efughi, OD”.
The ERG also faulted the claim by Mr. Okwudili that security reports available to him “showed that supporters of Senator Ike Ekweremadu had converged on the premises of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church Oghe within the Ezeagu North Development Centre for an unlawful assembly”.
The group observed that: “For us, this is a very remorseless remark intended to add salt to a bad injury. Members of the medical team were simply exercising their fundamental right of lawful and peaceful assembly having been cleared by the Commissioner of Police to hold the medical outreach. But on being told that the CP had cleared the team, Okwudili Onuora, was alleged to have retorted to the medical team: ‘To hell with you and your CP’”.
“And assuming that the medical mission did not come with the CP’s approval and that the team was to be barred from continuing with the medical outreach, which had successfully held in three other LGAs, whose duty would it be to enforce the order: the police or thugs?”, the group queried.
They called on the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, to hasten efforts to apprehend the alleged culprits.
“It is unfortunate that the cowards have the effrontery to issue falsehoods even while on the run, but we believe that with more commitment on the path of the police, they can easily be apprehended to face the wrath of the law”, the ERG emphasised.
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