Residents of Ibagwa-Aka town and neighbouring communities in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State, on Monday took to the streets over the reported killing of four children of the same parents by a pastor in the area.
NATIONAL POST had reported that the pastor allegedly used pestle to murder the four children for a yet to be identified reason while their parents were away.
Enraged residents could not stomach the brutal murder of the children, leading to a protest that took them to the local government headquarters.
Spokesman of the protesters could be heard saying: “We want to first of all thank the local government chairman for his efforts since he heard this.
“We are here today to tell him that we are tired, we are having sleepless nights; we don’t know what to do.
“We are tired, we are tired, we are devastated; and we are here to tell you that in as much as you have started these efforts, please don’t relent.”
“All these fake pastors, all these killers, two weeks ago, was abduction, last week was insurgents, now, killing of four innocent children,” he said amid wailing by the protesters.
Responding, the council chairman, Barr Ferdinand Ukwueze who could not hold back emotion, described the incident as unprecedented.
He wondered what innocent children had done to warrant such brutal killing.
Ukwueze said while the government was battling external aggressors, it was saddening that those within were also wreaking havoc on the people.
He assured the protesters that, “we will not relent until we get to the root of the matter; we will not relent until evil is confronted with justice.
“There will never be peace for the criminals in our society; we are not going to share the same boundary with murderers.
“His Excellency the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah has told me ‘make sure you get to the root of the matter and root away the criminals from amongst you’.
“That’s precisely what we are doing; our land is a no-go-area for criminals. I’m more pained than you are.
“As I speak with you, the primary suspects, three of them are already in detention; as I speak with you now, the other suspects that are at large, unless they are no longer breathing, wherever they are, we must smoke them out.”
Ukwueze further vowed that internal killings and kidnappings would stop.
Watch video: