By NewsBits
Residents of Umurah Ndeabor Aninri Community in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State weekend, protested at the Enugu Government House against the purported move to terminate the prosecution of suspected killers of members of the community in 2019.
Wearing black attires, the protesting residents marched to both offices of the state Attorney General and Commissioner for justice as well as the Government House, to demand that the government should not shield suspected criminals and murderers no matter their political leaning.
Brandishing placards bearing different inscriptions, the protesters sang sorrowful songs, calling for speedy trial of all those police investigations have indicted and charged to court.
Speaking with reporters at the Attorney General’s office, one of the leaders of the community, Chief Tobias Achi, said that they were in the state capital to protest the “subtle move by the attorney general of the state to stop and terminate the prosecution of the matter.”
Achi said that relations of those who killed some residents of their community on August 2, 2019 “are boasting that they have bought over the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Miletus Eze, and that he would terminate the trail before he leaves office.”
He said: “in what appeared to corroborate their boasting, the prosecuting counsel informed our community that the AG was demanding he returned the case file.”
He further said: “One Friday Eze was gruesomely murdered by some members of the community on August 2, 2019, and the matter has been in court since then. It appears they are not serious over the issue and the principal suspects, and their sponsors and relations are boasting in the community that the matter will be destroyed. And we are now seeing the signs because the attorney general is requesting our counsel to return the case file which he has been handling very well. He gave him fiat to prosecute the case.
“So, it is now crystal-clear for all of us that what they (relations of the suspects in the murder case) are boasting in the village is what the AG is trying to achieve.
“So, that was why the community rallied round to protest against that. We were in the office of the AG and the government house to register our protest. Since we started hearing the boasting, we have been trying to reach the AG, but he has been dodging us. We need justice in this case. It is a taboo in our place for a brother to kill his brother. In this case the perpetrators are boasting that they are above the law, that they have everything it takes to destroy the whole matter.
“They are even threatening to commit more harm. They have no remorse for the killing and other atrocities they committed against other members of the community. The court has fixed 23rd and 25 of May 2023 for hearing at the Enugu High Court but they are trying to frustrate the case so that the trial judge will strike it out for lack of diligent prosecution.”
Giving the genesis of the case, Chief Achi recalled that the crisis began on March 3, 2018, shortly after the Igweship tussle, in which they defeated their opponent.
“I was a candidate and one Chief Ikpenwa Cyprian contested with me and I won. The organisers counted the votes, Ikpenwa secured 400 plus, and I scored 500 plus but my opponent refused to concede defeat and they started creating problems. The returning officer declared the election inconclusive, and my people rejected it and insisted that I have won.
“Everybody accepted it except the few who are bent on destroying the community if they are not the one declared winner. They started attacking members of the community and eight people were seriously wounded. Again, on August 2, 2019, they launched another attack and about nine persons were seriously injured. In the night they launched another attack and killed one Friday Eze. They also cut the toes of a JSS 2 student and so many others who were seriously injured. This is the problem we are facing, and we want justice in this case, that is why our people are protesting so that there would be peace in the community.”
