A human rights and pro-democracy group, Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy & Development (FENRAD) has decried what it called skirmishes between some unidentified group and the military in Ohafia on Friday, June 11, 2021 which it says has led to the invasion of Ohafia by security agencies.
FENRAD in a statement issued on Monday by the Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor and Head Legal Team, Barr. Olusegun Bamgbose says this situation has caused the people of Ohafia local government area to live in panic and fear, adding that soldiers now invade their homes and privacy halting business and farming activities.
The group expressed worry that if not nipped in the bud, the situations can escalate, snowballing into bigger security concerns.
It therefore called on the state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu not to remain silent but collaborate with the military authorities to ensure that the issues are resolved.
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It says, “From the information we have so far gathered and gleaned, skirmishes erupted between some unidentified group and the military in Ohafia on Friday, June 11, 2021 and has since never abated.
“This has put the community members and indigenes in fear as soldiers now invade their homes and privacy halting business and farming activities as Reported. We are worried over the silence of the state’s executive governor, also the chief security officer and custodian of the state. We urge the governor to, as a matter of urgency, take immediate action by addressing this issue before it escalates to unmitigable disaster. The continued silence on the part of the state government under the leadership of Ikpeazu, to a large extent, is inopportune and far from ideal at a time like this.
“We are also no less worried, as a Right Group that the Release by the military says No single solider was killed in Ohafia and they are undertaking Routine Exercise in the furtherance of their operational mandate in line with Respect to Human Rights
“Today, being one set aside to commemorate our democracy it behoves state actors – both the security agencies and state government – to, in the spirit of all those who died in our democratic struggle (especially that of June 12 1993), respect to human rights and follow rules of engagement. It is the primary duty and mandate of the government to protect lives and properties of citizens and aliens as enshrined in the express provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended) just as it is also the obligation of the state government anywhere to ensure that citizens’ rights, here being rights to life and property, are guaranteed.
“The continual militarization and subsequent billeting of Ohafia has culminated in breaches that if not well managed will fuel the flame of insecurity which in recent times has created disaster in the entire Southeast.”
