Northern Hunters’ Killing: Edo Group Carpets Northern Elders’ Reprisal Threat

Edo People’s Congress (EPC) has reacted to an alleged reprisal threat of the Northern Elders Forum over the death of 16 northern hunters.

The EPC is an apex organisation of Edo people resident in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja,

The 16 Northern hunters had met their unfortunate death mistaken as kidnappers in the Edo town, with reports of alleged reprisal attack coming from the forum.

In a statement it issued today, the EPC noted that the incident was tragic and has received widespread condemnation and an on-the-spot assessment order by Governor Monday Okpebholo.

It said that rather than threat, that what was needed next was how to circumvent father occurrence.

“The press statement by the NEF through Professor Abubakar Jika Jiddere, spokesperson of the Forum, is regrettable and lacks the needed maturity and temperament at such a difficult time. It is reckless for the NEF to ignore the commendable action taken so far by the Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, in dousing the tragic situation and ensuring that those behind the crime are brought to book”, the congress stated in the statement signed by its Abuja chapter chairman, Umoru Momoh

“The Edo Peoples Congress, while joining all meaningful voices to condemn the event at Uromi that saw 16 Nigerians killed over mistaken identity, should serve as a wake-up call to the inherent distrust in the country and the untenable security situation.

“For several years, Nigerians of northern extraction have been identified as a terror to peace-loving people not just in Edo state but across the country.

“Our women have been desecrated, raped in farms, our fathers and sons kidnapped and murdered by mainly suspected northerners, and we have not deemed it to issue threats but have always urged the security agencies to do their job of securing our people and environs.

“To, therefore, find a group in the name of NEF making outlandish claims is disingenuous and unpatriotic.

“We beg to ask: what of the thousands of northerners that have been murdered in cold and heinous manners in the north by northerners? What has the NEF done about those?

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“The thousands of Nigerians kidnapped and ransom running into billions paid for in the north and orchestrated by northerners, what has the NEF done?

“The NEF cannot play ignorance to the execrable activities of some of its people who are outlaws, terrorists and bandits given the abundance of such videos and several arrests by the security agencies of northerners in the unfortunate, but thriving kidnapping for ransom and general insecurity in the country.

“The Edo Peoples Congress urges the Northern Elders Forum to be circumspect and proffer solutions to the general insecurity in the country, which has left ordinary Nigerians, especially in the south, fearful and suspicious of arms-bearing, dagger-welding northerners in their domains.

“We call on the federal government to do more in securing lives and engender trust amongst Nigerians that it is able and capable in addressing issues of insecurity.”