Benue Council boss threatens Court court action against Ebonyi Govt

From: Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

Chairman of Ado Local Government Council of Benue State, Chief James Oche has threatened to institute a court actiin against Ebonyi State Government for falsely accusing the Agila people of inciting and sponsoring attacks on Ngbo.
Chief Oche in a statement made available to newsmen in Makurdi at the weekend, intimated that the council is already putting every necessary materials together in consultation with legal officials to consider the likelihood of dragging the Ebonyi State Government to court for the sustained falsehood being peddled against the people of Agila community.
The chairman stated that government of Ebonyi state has continued to draw attention of the general public that Agila community were responsible for the April 12, 2021 attack on Ngbo communities of Ohaukwu Local Government of Ebony state, a development the chairman described as uncalled for and very inciting.
He noted that the N20 Million given to the Ngbo Vigilante to procure security outfits as named in the press release of the Ebonyi State Government and the sustained accusation that Agila people were responsible for the attack could amount to inciting and empowering of the Ngbo people to attack Agila people.
He said Ebonyi State Government should be held responsible if any Agila person is attack henceforth.
“The surviving victims of Ngbo recent attack, their family members, the chief security officer of the Ngbo people Leonard Igwe, the Ebonyi State Chapter of the PDP and newspapers that did investigative journalism on the attack all corroborated the truth that, the attack was from Fulani herdsmen and not Agila people.
“I wondered why the Ebonyi State Government was hell bent on accusing my people. This false accusation has caused panic among my people in Agila as most of them have deserted their community for fear of attack and now taken refuge in Igumale and Apa-Agila.
“As I speak, we have created an IDPs camps in the local government headquarters with over 3000 IDPs”.
It may be recalled that on the 28th day of April, 2021 the Ebonyi State Government in a press statement after an Emergency State Security Executive Council Meeting accused the Agila people of Ado Local Government of Benue State for engaging the Fulanis to perpetuate the attack of 12th April, 2021 against the Ngbo people.