Insecurity: Lawmaker urges Military, IGP to set up checkpoints

..seeks palliatives for 10,000 people rendered homeless in Ivo LGA

By Tom Okpe

A member of the House of Representatives has condemned gruesome murder of Amaeze Community members, Ishiagu, Ivo Local Government Area, (LGA) of Ebonyi State, calling on the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali and the military to set up security checkpoints in the area.

Rep Livinus Makwe, representing Ohaozara,
Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency at the green Chamber moved the motion on Thursday, at plenary in a motion of ‘urgent public importance’.

Makwe recalls that on Monday November 28, 2022, about eight (8) men, suspected to be bandits, armed with Ak-47 assault rifles, invaded Ngada Amaeze Community farmland in Ishiagu, Ivo LGA, of Ebonyi State, shooting and killing peaceful, innocent farmers between the hours of 2 and 2.30 pm.

“In the attack, Ejike Egwu was killed on the spot and his body set ablaze, while Onyekachi Nwaeni sustained severe gunshot wounds and has been lying critically ill at the intensive care unit of a hospital, after the attack.

“Benard Ajah, Nwachukwu Promise and Chibuzor Aroh, who escaped with various degrees of injuries are receiving treatment in a local hospital.”

Makwe further noted that this cold bloodied murder and attack on farmers and rural dwellers in Amaeze Community in Ishiagu, Ivo LGA, Ebonyi State by these killers has gone unchallenged, heightened and become incessant in the last 2 years.

“On January 9, 2022, the trio of Orji Anthony, Ogonna (both from Amaeze community) and Ajah Uka (from Ihietutu community), were shot and their bodies butchered and littered all over Amaeze Farm road.

“Ishiagu communities, which Amaeze is one, being generally agrarian communities, depending on agriculture, incessant invasion, killings and displacement by bandits and bare-faced murderers, have deprived the people of their source of livelihood, pushed rural dwellers to abject poverty and engendered a climate of fear and insecurity such that the people can no longer go to their farms freely.”

Adopting the motion, the House is worried, that in all these killings, security forces, particularly the police and the military have not been proactive in nipping the attacks in the bud through intelligence gathering, timely deployment and prompt intervention.

It called on the Chief of Army Staff to set up a military checkpoint at Amaeze-expressway, Amaeze, Ishiagu, Ivo LGAs, Ebonyi State, observing a one-minute silence in respect of the dead.

The House, Mandated its Committees on Police Affairs, Army and Interior to ensure compliance.

Meanwhile, the House mandated its Committee on Water Resources to interface with the Ministry of Water Resources to access the Ivo Dam project contract performance with a view to completing it.

It further mandated the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA) and Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to immediately intervene in the predicament of Ngwogwo, Amaokwe, Okue and Amaeke Communities of Ivo LGA, Ebonyi State with a view to providing them relief materials, shelter and alternative means of livelihood pending the completion of the Ivo Dam.

These resolutions were sequel to a motion of urgent public importance moved by Rep Makwe, calling on the Federal Ministry Of Water Resuces to complete the said Dam Project Abandoned Since 2015.

The House notes that in 2014, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources contracted Messrs Anbeez Services Nigeria Ltd, to construct the Ivo Dam at the confluence of Ivo River and Ikeh rivers at the border of Ivo Local Government Area, (LGA) Ebonyi State and Aninri LGA, Enugu State.

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The lawmakers expressed grave concerned that over 40,000 acres of arable farmland and rural settlement communities have remained permanently flooded till date, as a result of the dam embankment and during the rainy seasons, the flood get higher and spreads more to inland communities.

According to the lawmaker, the affected communities have written severally to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and NEMA to come to their aid but to no avail.

The motion was adopted when it was put to vote by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila who mandated the House Committees on Water Resources, Emergency and Disaster Preparedness to ensure compliance.