Beheading Of Policemen: South-east Governors, Leaders Cry Foul; Talk Tough On “Mkpuru Miri”

The South-east Governors/ Leaders Forum has condemned, in strong words, the viral video of two Policemen being beheaded by those who claimed to be members of IPOB/ESN.

The Forum said it would do a forensic investigation of the video to confirm its authenticity or not. It said such viral videos in the past, turned out not to be true as a number of criminals now commit all kinds of atrocities in the name of IPOP/ESN.

The Forum, however, said the law would deal decisively, and ruthlessly with all those involved in the grissly action if it turns out to be true.

In a statement issued at the end of a Virtual meeting,  members were, also,  alarmed at the use of hard drugs, especially, Methamphetamine , popular as Mkpurumiri, by youths in the Zone, and decided to come down hard on the users and sellers. The shops, stalls and  properties of those who sell the drug will be confiscated, and forfeited to the Government, the Forum resolved.

Following is their resolution at the end of the meeting held on Tuesday, November 30. It was signed by the Governor of Ebonyi State, who is the Chairman of the South-east Governors’ Forum, Engr Dave Umahi.

“South East Governors and Leaders held an emergency virtual meeting on 30th November, 2021 on a number of issues.  The meeting resolved as follows:

“1. We condemn in strong terms the video clip and write-up we saw in some social and print media where two policemen were said to have been killed and their heads cut-off by youths who styled themselves as members of IPOB/ESN.  We have resolved among ourselves to work with security agencies to determine the authenticity of this video/report and if found to be true, to apprehend the perpetrators by all possible means to face the law.  We are aware of similar videos in the past and which when subjected to forensic review were found out to have happened outside Nigeria.  We assure Nigerians especially the Police community that we will not rest until we have done justice to this matter.

“2. We resolved to be very committed in our fight against hard drugs in our region especially the new one called Methamphetamine, locally known in South East as Mkpurumiri.  We have decided that all shops and locations where any hard drug is sold will be forfeited to the State Government and all those promoting the trade or indulging in hard drug shall be seriously isolated to face the law.   Rehabilitation of those misled into hard drug is also ongoing.  We urge community leaders to give secret phone calls through the special numbers offered by our Governors on security and hard drug.

“3. We thank all our youths for the relative peace we enjoy in South East now.  We are committed to your welfare.  We want those who were misled to carry arms against our people and security agencies to surrender their arms to the Governors and get rehabilitated back to the society.

“4. We warn all criminals who have styled themselves as IPOB/ESN to kill our people to immediately stop.  We are aware that the insecurity and killings in South East have gone beyond IPOB/ESN as any criminal finds it easy to hide under such a name to commit crimes.  We are determined to do everything to protect the lives and properties of our people.  Our youths are advised to leverage on the various empowerment and agricultural programmes by our Governors to better their lives.

“5.On the issue of agitation by the youths, we are reviewing the work of Ohaneze Ndigbo committees on this matter and will soon call a larger stakeholders’ meeting to address such.  All issues relating to the agitation and its fallout are better settled politically and on a negotiation table and we thank the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR for his consideration of a political solution to this problem.  He has demonstrated that he is a good father who listens to his children.

“6. We urge our people to resume their Monday businesses as we assure them of adequate security.

“7. We thank all our security agencies for their commitment in securing the lives and properties of our people in South East and we assure them of our continued support as they discharge their duties.”