Enugu Killing: House Deputy Minority Leader Calls for Arrest, Prosecution of Culprits

The Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mohammed Adamu, to immediately order the arrest and prosecution of criminals behind the killing of a farmer in Amankpunato Autonomous Community in Oji River Local Government Area of Enugu State. Okechukwu, who represents Aninri/Agwu/Oji-River federal constituency, Enugu, made this known in a statement on Wednesday while conveying his condolences to the bereaved family and the Amankpunato community over the sad loss. He said bringing the killers to book would serve as a deterrent to other criminal elements in the country. The lawmaker, while calling on the president to deploy more resources to the Nigeria Police to help build its capacity to protect lives and property efficiently, equally urged him to lend his political weight to the Bill for the Establishment of State Police. He said: “While I commend the Enugu State Government of its efforts to secure the state through investments in security, I call on the president and IG to get our farms and state ridded of criminal herders, hoodlums, and other forms of criminals immediately. ''I am also afraid that hunger virus would loom larger in the nearest future unless decisive steps are taken by the federal government, which is the sole custodian of instruments of coercion, to tame these crimes, as people are getting more afraid to go to their farms. From the nationwide incidences of killing, kidnapping, rape, and plundering by bandits, criminal herdsmen, insurgents, armed robbers, kidnap gangs, and other criminal syndicates, it is very clear that we have a lot of work to do. ''The federal government needs to render more material support to the current IG in his efforts to groom the Nigeria Police into a truly modern, civil, and potent homeland security outfit. Also, by the success recorded by the current administration in the state with the introduction of Forest Guards and Neighbourhood Watch groups in all communities, it becomes clearer that we can do better when states are constitutionally empowered to set up their individual state police service to complement the efforts of the federal security agencies.”