The Nigeria Police Force, Ebonyi State Command, has arrested no fewer than 26 suspects over the recent killings and arsons that took place in Ekoli Edda Community, in the Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
According to the reports, those arrested were the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Stanley Okoro-Emegha, and a former chairman of the Afikpo South LGA and Federal House of Representatives candidate for the Afikpo North/South Constituency in the 2023 general election, Eni Chima.
SP At a press conference in Abakaliki on Monday, Chris Anyanwu, the spokesperson, accused the suspects of being behind the dastardly acts and vowed to arraign them in court soonest.
The police claimed they (the suspects) were responsible for the killings and arson that pervaded the area on December 26, 2022. In the incident, two people, including a police inspector, were killed, and two houses were razed.
Aside from murder, the command also accused the suspects of arson, conspiracy, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms.
According to the police, the suspects must face the wrath of the law, in spite of the recommendations of the commission of inquiry set up by Governor David Umahi, of the state.
“The key actors among the suspects arrested volunteered useful ‘confessional statements’ that exposed the aggregate of overwhelming findings hereunder outlined:
“The fracas that engulfed Ekoli-Edda on December 26, 2022, ignited at about 1600 hours during a face-off between the security aides of Hon Stanley Okoro Emegha and a faction of Ekoli-Edda youth believed to be loyalists of Hon Eni Uduma Chima.
“The showdown was precipitated by the duo’s protracted political rivalry and supremacy struggle.” Interestingly, the two political stalwarts hail from the same community, belong to the same political party, and even live in close proximity.
“The visit of the APC chairman to his village on a fateful day, with his aides, infuriated the fragment of the youths in the area who are purportedly adherents of Eni Uduma Chima, hence the showdown that ensued.”
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