Anambra demands justice for victims of torture, extrajudicial killings, YPP replies Soludo

 

By Okechukwu Onuegbu 

The Young Progressive Party (YPP), Anambra State November 8 running mate, Mr Uzu Okagbue, has called on governor Chukwuma Soludo to be transparent in handling issues of insecurity and extrajudicial killings wreaking havoc in the State.

Okagbue, who made the demands in a statement, explained that the victims of need justice because they "are very soul of our state" even as he added that failure to do that would make the populace wonder if "government is not hiding a conspiracy against its own people, then let it speak."

According to him, "let there be full disclosure, swiftly and transparently: just as quick as the press releases churned out by the State Government campaign organization headed by Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu on candidate’s credentials submitted to INEC. Anything less is complicity."

Continuing, he said "The question now is simple: what is the State Government hiding? Why this eerie quiet around acts so brazenly committed in broad daylight before dozens of witnesses? Are we to believe that the Nigeria Police is complicit in shielding perpetrators, or worse still, that renegade groups unleashed on the streets of Anambra are acting under tacit approval?"

"Let it be clear: this is not about politics. This is about the sanctity of truth, justice, and the right of Ndi Anambra to live in a state governed by accountability and transparency. I, Uzu Okagbue, Deputy Governorship Candidate of the YPP, state without hesitation that the two recent incidents shaking our state, the brutal assault and stripping of a corps member, and the cold-blooded shooting of a pregnant woman and other victims at the Onitsha Main Market, are now shrouded in a troubling fog of deceit.

"Here is the puzzle: the individuals paraded by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security as suspects in these incidents do not match the accounts of the victims and eyewitnesses. In the assault of the corps member, witnesses confirm that a female assailant was among those who carried out the shameful act. Yet, the suspects in custody? All men. How does the government explain this glaring inconsistency?

"And what of the market shooting? Ndi Anambra have not been formally told that the real killers of the pregnant woman are in custody. If the suspects are known, why is their identity not openly confirmed? If they are unknown, why the deafening silence?," he added.