Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state yesterday vowed that the kind of killings that took place in Nimbo, Uzo-Uwani local council area of the state last April would not be allowed to happen again.
Speaking during the burial service for nine of the victims of the attack held at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Nimbo, the governor said, ´’this will never happen again on our soil. We won’t take this again’.
It was the same tone of bitterness that took the better of the homily delivered by the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Rt. Rev. Prof. Godfrey Onah, who condemned the killings and called on the federal government to do the needful to save the vulnerable farmers from any further attacks by the suspected herdsmen.
The governor who had earlier before the burial mass gone round to condole with the people of the community at the arena, especially the widows of the slain men, spoke with emotion towards the end of the service, saying that ´Monday, the 25th of April, 2016, will ever remain a dark, sad and solemn day in the memory of the people of Enugu State and indeed Nigerians at large.
“It was on that day that our brothers and sisters, whose remains are lying here before us, were ambushed and murdered in cold blood and in their own land.
“Having done all that was needful including attending to the injured and the displaced, we have assembled here, in tears and in grief, to bury the dead and bid their innocent souls a final farewell.
“Though our emotions cannot restore them to life, we find solace in the fact that the whole world had stood by us and offered us sympathy and solidarity, ever since the incident that took their lives, occurred.
“We make bold to declare that their deaths can never be in vain and we pledge to do all that is within our legitimate means, to give them justice. Like the martyrs they have become, the spilling of their innocent blood is already saving souls as it has aroused in our people and indeed the whole nation, a burning impulse to do all that is necessary to prevent the future occurrence of similar incidents anywhere in the country”, said the governor.
Scores of Reverend Fathers and other members of the Catholic and clergy and their Anglican communion counterparts took part in the burial mass also attended by Senator Chukwuka Utazi representing Enugu North senatorial zone in the senate, the former governor of Anambra state, Chief Peter Obi, and the former minister of information, Chief John Nnia Nwodo as well as members of the Enugu State Executive Council, among many others.
