NIMBO ATTACK: Police Commissioner To Re-Appear Before Panel

Former Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, Mr Ekechukwu Nwodibo will on September 8, reappear before the commission of inquiry into the killing of people in Nimbo community, Enugu State by suspected herdsmen.

Chairman of the Commission,Justice Chukwuma Eneh disclosed this Wednesday in Enugu at an emergency sitting of the tribunal. Justice Chukwuma Eneh said that there were grey areas Nwodibo needed to clarify on the involvement of the Nigeria police during the crisis. Eneh said that Nwodibo, who is currently the commissioner in-charge of Nigerian Ports Authority in Port Harcourt, has been invited to reappear on September 8.

He expressed gratitude that the tribunal was gradually winding up after more than three months of its sittings. Meanwhile, hearing on the recent invasion in Ndiagu Attakwu Akegbeugwu community in Udi Local Government Area of the state by suspected herdsmen and subsequent killing of two residents has been adjourned to September 8.

The adjournment followed the non appearance of the Fulani community and the desire of the panel to accord all parties in the matter fair hearing. Elders of the community had sent an emergency memorandum to the tribunal in order to testify on the incidence. Addressing the tribunal, Mr Richard Udeichi and counsel to the panel said that there was no law that barred it from hearing fresh cases though it had closed public hearing. Udeichi said that Section 9 of the Commission of Inquiry Law empowered it to obtain evidences, adding that such process was not time-bound.

“The tribunal has the freedom to reconvene within its life span whenever it finds it necessary to further look at issues of concern,” he said. He appealed to the tribunal to invoke its discretionary powers to enable the community testify their ordeals in the hands of the suspected herdsmen. In his submission, counsel to Attakwu elders’ council, Mr Richard Mbah aligned himself with Udeichi, adding that the situation of his clients was pathetic. “Residents of the community no longer sleep with their eyes closed since the incidence of August 25 and they have abandoned their farms, which are their mainstay occupation,” Mbah said. In his ruling, the chairman said that the counsel had impressed them with the urgency of the matter and that the tribunal would deal with the matter because of its extraordinary nature.

Eneh said that the Fulani community in the state as well as the police would be put on notice to appear on the next adjourned date. It would be recalled that a Catholic seminarian, Mr Lazarus Nwankwo and a pregnant mother were killed by suspected herdsmen in Attakwu community just about the period the tribunal was concluding its assignment. The incident came exactly four months after the invasion of Nimbo community in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of the state, which necessitated the inauguration of the panel of inquiry by Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.