The bloody intra communal war between Ezza-Effium and Effium clans in Ohaukwu local government area of Ebonyi State has taken another turn as over 50 of the 66 arrested suspected hired mercenaries responsible for the killings and destruction of properties have allegedly escaped from custody.
The suspects, mainly from Jukun, Igala and other sub-ethnic nationalities were allegedly arrested by a combined team of Army and police operatives led by the General Officer Commanding 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu when he went on the spot assesment tour of the crisis in the war torn community.
The GOC was accompanied by the Deputy Governor, Barr Kelechi Igwe and other security chiefs.They cordoned off Okpoduma village, an Effium enclave where the hired militias by the Uffiom speaking tribe camped and arrested over 66 of them and then handed them over to the police.
The GOC and the team further proceeded to Nwekendiagu village in the community for same operation while the suspects were handed over to the police by the GOC for movement to police headquarters, Abakaliki for further investigations.
But immediately the team left the community, information filtered in that 55 out of the 66 suspects have escaped from custody
Speaking on the news of the suspects escape, the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Border Peace, Chief Stanley Emegha described it as an act of sabotage on the part of security agencies.
He accused the security agents of aiding the escape and threatened that the government would be forced to use the state vigilante to end the persistent hostilities in the community.
“Our visit today was a major breakthrough by arresting those people but very unfortunate that out of the 66, security agencies that were saddled with the responsibility of guarding those people to Abakaliki compromised, as we moved, they released them and the Governor through the Deputy Governor has demanded for an explanation from the CP and the Commanding Officer.
“The Commissioner of Police was there, he saw them. It was my insistence that those people must be arrested, that these are the warriors and they shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the community. So, it is compromise on the part of the security. The reason why we have been having this problem in Effium is because the security has compromised. What happened this afternoon is very clear to every body that they have compromised”, he said
When contacted, the state CP, Garba dismissed the claim that there was compromise on the part of the police.
He acknowledged that the arrested 66 suspects are no longer complete but refused to comment further on their escape.
A stakeholder of Ezza speaking clan in Effium who pleaded for anonymity disclosed that a total of 66 warriors were nabbed by the Ebonyi State Deputy Governor and the GOC commanding 82 Division alongside his men at Okpoduma village, and lamented that the suspects escaped along the way.
“Look at them in these pictures. These pictures have already garnered a thunderous applause for Ebonyi state government and the military on various social media spaces before the unheard incident. When we tell you that Ebonyi state government has hands in the ongoing carnage at Effium, you will term it opposition politics”
However as at the time of this report, police authorities were yet to give official report on the alleged escape of the suspects from their custody but an unconfirmed police source said the fleeing suspects were later rearrested by the police and were currently in their custody.
The Effium communal crisis which started on the 22nd of January, 2021 has lingered and has led to death of over 200 persons while property worth millions of naira have been lost.