Nwifuru says he saved Amasiri from 200 reprisal deaths

From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki

Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru says he has saved the Amasiri community in the Afikpo Local Government Area of the state from 200 deaths that would have been recorded in the area, which would have come from reprisals following the killings and destruction in the crisis between the community and Okporojo, Oso Edda and Akpoha in the Edda and Afikpo local government areas of the state.

Nwifuru said five communities would have been facing Amasiri because of the killings that would have resulted in the 200 casualties it would have recorded if not for the stringent measures, including a curfew, he put in place.

The governor stated this while fielding questions from journalists at the conference room in his office, Centenary City, Government House, Abakaliki, after the state security council meeting on Tuesday evening.

He decried cyberbullying against him by some Amasiri indigenes over the measures he took in the community.

He said the security council had been receiving information on possible reprisals and that, if he had not acted fast by putting the measures in place, there would have been a full-blown communal war in Amasiri, with the community facing five communities.

“Those stringent measures you think the Amasiri people are witnessing today, they are not witnessing because people hate them; it is for their own advantage.

“If we go by security information that is before us, it is to their own advantage because if those stringent measures were not in place by today, I am sure they would have been recording more than 100 or 200 deaths, and a lot of things would have been happening there.

“There would have been a proper communal war, and they would have been the ones losing because five communities would have been facing them because you are talking about Okporojo, and you didn’t remember that they also killed someone in Akpoha on 27th January, cut off his head, tied his hand at the back and buried him in a shallow grave.

“So, the Amasiri community has a lot of atrocities that, when you look at it, you will make a decision that will be very, very difficult.

“So, we are going to look again at the schools when we meet again for the security council meeting. So, the schools remain closed until we review the stringent measures we have put in place there.

“The schools should remain closed for the reason best known to us because we are seeing what many people are not seeing,” he said.