It is over two months now that some armed men from Ezza, Ebonyi State, allegedly invaded a neigbouring town, Ezillo, and massacred over 80 persons. The governments (federal, state and local), and security agencies are treatting the suspects with kid gloves. At least, this is the thinking of the grieving community. The mass murder occurred on December 31, 2011.

As far as Ezillo is concerned, the authorities concerned are lukewarm and indifferent to their plight, a development they said, that has even worsened the condition of those, who survived the senseless killings.
Property worth millions of naira, including houses, were destroyed by the invaders. The survivors of the massacre have vowed not to rest on their oars until those behind the dastardly act are made to bear the full weight of the law.

As part of the efforts to achieve the objective, a body representing the embattled community, Federated Ezillo General Assembly (FEGA), has written petitions to President Goodluck Jonathan, the Inspector General of Police, the Senate, House of Representatives, International Criminal Court, Hague, and Amnesty International, Geneva, Switzerland. All the petitions were jointly signed by the president of the assembly, Enyi Innocent, Secretary, Igwe’s cabinet, Chief Umoke Raphael, Abba James. Others are, Igboke Samuel, Ikechukwu Eze, Okonwada Onwe and Abel Ebenyi.

In the petition, the Assembly narrated how people from Ezza invaded the community on the New Year’s eve and gruesomely murdered men, women (including pregnant women) youths (boys and girls) and little children.
According to the town, the December 2011, attack was not the first to be carried out against Ezillo in Ishielu Local Government Area of the state by people from Ezza.
“In the face of these premeditated but unwarranted attacks, we have always kept our cool, and maintained peace, law and order. We have never attempted reprisal attacks on our assailants, the Ezzas,” the petition to President Jonathan said.

The petition continued: “These attacks, however, came to the climax on 31st December, 2011. While our people were busy, celebrating Christmas like others, worldwide, the Ezza people invaded our community in their hundreds, with guns, machetes, bows, arrows and other dangerous weapons. They killed, raped and maimed our people. They destroyed houses and other property belonging to our people. At the end of the mindless killing, looting, mayhem and brigandage, hundreds of our people, particularly, children and women, lay dead. Countless houses were razed, many Ezillo people rendered homeless. They have become refugees even in their own town.”
“We are particularly pained, your Excellency, by the docile attitude of policemen, to this genocide and mass murder of our people. This is because, we got wind of the plan by Ezza, to attack our community and accordingly, we passed the information to the police. But the police failed woefully to take any proactive steps or action, to prevent the mayhem and vandalism.”

Alleging that the state government and the police command have failed to take steps to arrest and bring the perpetrators of the heinous act to book, the community appealed for the president’s intervention.
The petition further said: “We implore you, Mr. President, to kindly institute a high-powered Commissions of Enquiries into the incident, to unearth the reason for the massacre. This type of mayhem needs to be nipped in the bud in Ebonyi State, before it is too late. But, Mr. President, you should act now, you are our last hope, haven been betrayed by the police and Ebonyi State government. The only tribute we can pay to our fallen kinsmen and women is to guard against the recurrence of the massacre, which sent them to their untimely graves. The federal government under your Excellency holds the ace.”

The tone and content of the petition to the Inspector General of police are not too different from the one to the president. Ezillo urged the number one cop to commence full investigation into the matter without delay, adding that the suspects are still around and well known to members of the public. The Assembly appealed to the police boss to establish a mobile police base in the town, to check incessant killings, arson and armed robbery in future. In the petition to the International Criminal Court, the community also alleged that some government officials and prominent politicians in the state prevailed on the police and law enforcement agents to keep away, in order to pave way for the annihilation of the people of Ezillo.

It said: “There appears to be a grand conspiracy to wipe us out from the surface of the earth. Government, law enforcement agencies and the Nigerian people, appeared to have abandoned and left us to our fate. Please, save us from this planned and orchestrated extermination.”
In the petition to the Amnesty International, the community recounted the tale of woes, and how the Nigerian government has refused to act, after the unprovoked attacks.

“No efforts have been made to fish out the perpetrators of the mayhem, their sponsors and collaborators. The Nigerian nation talks about terrorist attacks, by the dreaded Boko Haram in churches, streets and hamlets.
Nobody has said anything about the senseless killings and massacre of our people.”
Following the apathy of the Nigerian government to come to our aid, we have no other alternative but to make this Macedonian call on your organization, to come to our aid. There is conspiracy to eliminate and annihilate our community.

We have a right to live and to own our lands. We are at a loss, as to why we are being discriminated against and marginalized by our neighbours. We cannot continue to live in fear and trepidation. We cannot guarantee that there will not be further attacks, which will consume innocent lives. We are now living in mortal fears and apprehension,” the petition further stated.

The one, addressed to the Senate President, Chief David Mark, was more of a repeat of what the community claimed in other petitions. But recalled that hundreds of bodies of victims are still in the mortuaries.
“As we write to your Excellency, hundreds of Ezillo people are lying dead in various mortuaries.
In a separate statement issued by the Assembly recently, it said members of the community are law-abiding and have faith in the laws of the land, which guarantee protection of citizens and punishment of those who are lawless.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/crimewatch/2012/mar/01/crimewatch-01-03-2012-001.html

Since this man became the governor of the state about five years ago, the only things we hear of in Ebonyi state are horrible stories. Killings maimings, are the order of the day because a bad man is on the throne. God please help Ebonyi State.