Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State on Monday urged the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, and other rights groups to investigate all the issues surrounding herdsmen attack in Nimbo, Uzo-Uwani council area of the State.
The Governor, who spoke at a meeting between traditional rulers and other town union leaders, equally called for the immediate reactivation of community vigilante services.
His speech reads in full:
“I am pleased to welcome you all to this very important meeting and I thank you for coming despite the very short notice.
“You are all aware of what happened in this State on Monday, 25th April, 2016 precisely at Nimbo in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area where suspected herdsmen attacked and killed many of our brothers and sisters.
“You will recall that in a Press Conference that I addressed on Friday, the 27th of April, 2016, I presented in detail, all the efforts that we made as a government to forestall the ugly incident and also announced the decision of government to set up a Judicial Commission to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the incident and other previous but similar occurrences in Enugu State.
“I wish to use this opportunity to once again thank President Muhammadu Buhari, my colleagues the Governors of various states, the National Assembly, Christian religious leaders, the civil society organizations, the media and indeed the generality of Nigerians, for their remarkable show of concern and outrage over the dastardly act.
“I also wish to call on the National Human Rights Commission and all other relevant national and international bodies and organizations to give necessary attention to the incident with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book and preventing future occurrences.
“I have invited you here today to formally brief you on the prevailing security situation in this state especially in the aftermath of the killings at Nimbo and for us to discuss and agree on the formula for safeguarding our land and ensuring the security of lives and property of our people.
“We intend to activate the provisions of the extant and relevant laws of Enugu State particularly, the Neigbourhood Association and Watch Groups Law 2006 which provides for the establishment and operation of neighbourhood watch associations in every autonomous community in Enugu State.
“Though these associations have been constituted in many communities, we understand that most of them have not been functional mainly due to lack of funding and other incentives.
“It is the intention of government, particularly in the light of contemporary challenges, to reactivate and make them functional in the interest of the peace and security of our people.
“Towards this end, we have scheduled to inaugurate the Board for the neighbourhood associations and we will be asking you to make inputs in relation to its composition in order to ensure adequate and fair representation of all concerned parties.
“Schedule 1 made pursuant to Section 27 of the aforesaid Law, outlines the sources for the funding of the Neighbourhood associations as follows: Gifts; Donations from voluntary organizations, corporate institutions etc; Grants and presentation from; Government agencies; Individuals; Residents of the neighbourhood; Levies, dues, fines and subventions from Government and Organized fund raising activities.
“Notwithstanding, the current poor finances of Government, we are constrained by prevailing circumstances to provide an initial seed money of N100 million to support the security efforts and activities of the communities.
“In accordance with the aforesaid Section 27 of the Neighbourhood and Watch Groups Law, donations and gifts from voluntary organizations, corporate institutions and well meaning individuals and groups in support of this project, are welcome while we call on the respective communities, to also as prescribed by the Law, carry out their own fund raising ventures for the same purpose.”
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