Herdsmen attacks: Uzo-Uwani professionals’ association urges Buhari to compensate victims

Worried by the hardship being faced by the victims of herdsmen attack, which left in its wake, deaths of innocent people and destruction of property in their communities one year after, a concerned pressure group, the Uzo-Uwani Professionals’ Association (UPA), has appealed to the federal government to immediately compensate the victims, so as to enable them to continue with their normal lives.

According to a statement signed by the president of the association, Mr. Peter Okoye, and made available to the Daily Times, “one year after the attack on the people of Nimbo Community in Uzo–Uwani local government area of Enugu state by the cattle herdsmen, the people have renewed their call on the government to compensate the victims of the ugly attack.”

It would be recalled that the peaceful town was, on April 25, 2016, invaded by the herdsmen in their numbers, with sophisticated and other dangerous weapons, while the people were asleep.

According to the group, while addressing journalists in Abuja recently after their emergency meeting to mark the remembrance of the attack, Okoye lamented that his people were yet to recover from the pains and trauma of the dastardly attack, “where about 38 people were gruesomely murdered, over 100 persons sustained various degrees of injuries, many domestic livestock were slaughtered and property worth millions of Naira, including churches and markets, were destroyed.”

The statement said that, it regretted that up till now, the attackers have not been prosecuted, even when they had confessed to the crime, adding that, “the people of the town and its surrounding communities are still living in fear of being attacked by the herdsmen, following inadequate security arrangement on the ground.”

According to the statement, despite the fact that, that the former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, “approved the siting of a Divisional Police Station in Nkpunato Community in the area, up till now, nothing has been done about it, despite the fact that the Senator representing the Zone, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, had cleared the site waiting for the commencement of the project.”

Okoye, said in the statement that, while his group urged the current Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to expedite action in the sitting of the police division in the community to enhance security of lives and property, it was also imperative on the government to establish state police for effective policing of the country.

He also appealed for constant patrol of the area by the joint military and para-military patrol team to enable the people feel free and carry out their normal activities.

The statement said the Association has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, reminding him about the plight of the people, as well as, the Inspector General of Police “requesting that the herdsmen should vacate their place, as they only have farm lands and not grazing reserves,” more so as, the people of Nimbo community are predominantly farmers; but urged the people to calm down, and expressed hope that government would heed their call.