A group known as the Edo Peoples Congress (EPC) says the comments by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) on the killing of 16 hunters in Edo are “reckless”.
On Thursday, a mob in the Uromi area of Edo killed 16 hunters of northern descent who were travelling from Elele, Rivers state.
The Kano-bound travellers were attacked and lynched after some vigilante members raised the alarm, suspecting that they were kidnappers.
While calling on the Edo and federal governments to prosecute the killers of the hunters, NEF said the north “has tolerated numerous such animalistic and cannibalistic acts of recklessness from some southern part of Nigeria in the past”.
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In a statement on Sunday, Umoru Momoh, EPC chair in Abuja, said it is also reckless for the forum to ignore the actions taken so far by Monday Okpebholo, Edo governor, in dousing the tension that followed the incident.
“The Edo Peoples Congress, while joining all meaningful voices to condemn the event at Uromi that saw 16 Nigerians killed over mistaken identity, should serve as a wake-up call to the inherent distrust in the country and the untenable security situation,” Momoh said.
“The NEF cannot play ignorance to the execrable activities of some of its people who are outlaws, terrorists and bandits given the abundance of such videos and several arrests by the security agencies of northerners in the unfortunate but thriving kidnapping for ransom and general insecurity in the country.
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“The Edo Peoples Congress urges the Northern Elders Forum to be circumspect and proffer solutions to the general insecurity in the country which has left ordinary Nigerians especially in the south fearful and suspicious of arms bearing, dagger welding northerners in their domains.”
Momoh said the federal government should do more in protecting the lives and property of citizens across the country.
