EBONYI MASSACRE: 2 months after, victims’ families still cry for justice

 ...Petition Jonathan, International Court of Justice, Amnesty International, others
 •Victims are greedy, they wanted to reap where they didn’t sow- Suspects

It is over two months now that some armed men from Ezza, Ebonyi State, allegedly invaded a neigbouring town, Ezillo, and massacred over 80 persons. The governments (federal, state and local), and security agencies are treatting the suspects with kid gloves. At least, this is the thinking of the grieving community. The mass murder occurred on December 31, 2011.

 As far as Ezillo is concerned, the authorities concerned are lukewarm and indifferent to their plight, a development they said, that has even worsened the condition of those, who survived the senseless killings.
 Property worth millions of naira, including houses, were destroyed by the invaders. The survivors of the massacre have vowed not to rest on their oars until those behind the dastardly act are made to bear the full weight of the law.

 As part of the efforts to achieve the objective, a body representing the embattled community, Federated Ezillo General Assembly (FEGA), has written petitions to President Goodluck Jonathan, the Inspector General of Police, the Senate, House of Representatives, International Criminal Court, Hague, and Amnesty International, Geneva, Switzerland. All the petitions were jointly signed by the president of the assembly, Enyi Innocent, Secretary, Igwe’s cabinet, Chief Umoke Raphael, Abba James. Others are, Igboke Samuel, Ikechukwu Eze, Okonwada Onwe and Abel Ebenyi.

 In the petition, the Assembly narrated how people from Ezza invaded the community on the New Year’s eve and gruesomely murdered men, women (including pregnant women) youths (boys and girls) and little children.
 According to the town, the December 2011, attack was not the first to be carried out against Ezillo in Ishielu Local Government Area of the state by people from Ezza.
 “In the face of these premeditated but unwarranted attacks, we have always kept our cool, and maintained peace, law and order. We have never attempted reprisal attacks on our assailants, the Ezzas,” the petition to President Jonathan said.