Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
The recent Daily Trust Newspapers report on the murder of a Hausa woman and her little children in Anambra State has continued to generate condemnation and criticism across the South-East.
The paper reported that Hajira Jubril, her children, were gruesomely murdered by unknown gunmen at Isulo, Anambra State.
Their report also stressed that other attacks were targeted at hurting people of other tribes and ethnic backgrounds resident in the state.
The League of Anambra Professionals, a platform for professionals from the state, in a statement, described the report as “mischievous narrative” championed to cause tensions and reprisals in the state.
The statement signed by its President, Mr. Chijioke Okoli, said the medium’s report was not a true reflection of incidents in the state, noting that the heinous attacks by arsonists in the state affected every resident of the state.
The body explained that the commercial motorcycle on which the victim, Hajira and her children were being ferried unluckily ran into the gunmen and were fired at.
Condemning the growing trend of insecurity, it warned that violence and killings in the state must stop in the interest of the state, lamenting that the bewildering large scale bloodletting and arson had left Anambra State tethering on the brink of anarchy.
According to the statement, “We condemn in very strong terms the widespread grievous criminality which has gripped Anambra State and the South-East in general in the guise of agitations.
“We warned of the dire consequences when criminal elements started their systematic de-legitimization of the law enforcement agencies with the murder of policemen and burning of their stations.
“With particular reference to the late Hajira, we hasten to remind ourselves of the very cosmopolitan nature of Anambra State and its people. Anambrarians readily make home of far flung and most challenging places, even as they readily accept strangers in their homeland.
“In the predominant Christian faith of the populace and indeed in Igbo cosmology, accommodation of the peaceable stranger is an article of faith.
“The show of ownership of the problem by the Anambra State government by full participation in the burial of late Hajira, commitment to apprehension of the murderers and due assurances to non-indigenes, especially those from the northern states, is commendable.”
The statement called on the Federal Government, which is the primary controller of instruments and agencies of law enforcement, to do much more than it has been doing without further traumatizing the populace.
Ikengaonline reported that Anambra State Government had since reacted to the publication and had claimed that the Daily Trust headline and the remaining riders in its story do not reflect the true situation in the state.
