Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has said that preliminary investigations had revealed that youths of the host community were not responsible for the midnight raid at Omumauzor Cattle Market Ukwa West on Tuesday.
The governor who disclosed this when he visited the market on Thursday vowed that the state would stop at nothing in bringing the perpetrators to book.
He said that “the State Government has the capacity to protect the lives and property of people and residents of the State”.
According to Ikpeazu, investigations further showed that the youths of the immediate community were the ones that assisted the victims after the attack.
Governor Ikpeazu assured that “the investigation will be deep and all those involved would be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the land.”
Ikpeazu said that the “government is not going back with the decision of locating the market”, but added that it would fortify security around the market by citing a military base and other security units in the area as well as reinforcing the perimeter fencing around the new market and abattoir.
He promised that his government would do everything to forestall such incident in future.
Governor Ikpeazu, who regretted that “our society still has bloodthirsty people who can kill mindlessly”, sympathized with the victims and assured that government would continue to find a way to provide succour to those who lost their property to enable them to continue with their business.
He further said that he would meet with key stakeholders from the area this weekend on the issue.
