*northern govs snub the event
From Chuks Collins, AWKA.
It was an outpouring of emotions, tears and anguish again at Adazi-Nnukwu, Anaocha council of Anambra State where 13 victims of the Boko Haram mayhem of December 28, 2011, January 5 and January 6, 2012 in Mubi, Adamawa State were buried after a memorial service.
This now makes it two communities in the state to have buried their dead from the Boko Haram menace. The other was Azigbo, where a bank manager and his driver were interred amidst tears and curses, last month
At Adazi Nnukwu yesterday, the people, in their wailings cried for urgent measures by the authorities to secure the lives and property of Nigerians irrespective of where they reside or work.
They equally spoke of the need for a political solutions to the worsening spate of insecurity in the country as its destroying the international community\s confidence in the nation. It was viewed as counter productive for a struggling and forward looking developing economy to allow so much insecurity to drive away local and foreign investors, noting that in a matter of time the negative effects would begin to show.
The 12 men and a woman were killed by armed Boko Haram members days after the blood thirsty sect jolted the country on the 2011 christmas day church service, killing of dozens of Christian worshippers at Madalla, Niger state and Jos, Plateau State.
But as the people mourned, they had one clear message to the nation and perhaps the murderous sect, that “enough is enough”
The President General of the Adazi NnukwuTown Development Union, Chief B.C. Enemuo, dismissed the insinuations created by the Adamawa State Government that the deceased were killed over business deals that were sour. He saw the claim as the hieght of irresponsibility and official dishonesty in trivializing a serious issue.
According to him, “The cold blooded massacre of Adazi Nnukwu citizens on the 5th and 6th January 2012 absolutely had nothing to do with business disagreements or leaders contest as is being foisted on the minds of the general public by callous and insensitive agents of the ex-Governor Murtala Nyako’s administration,” Enemuo said.
The community also called for adequate compensation to the families of all those killed in the Mubi mayhem.
The Catholic Bishop of Awka, Rt. Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, who preached the homily at the burial mass, said when other nations were contending with natural disasters, Nigeria is in the throes of human disaster perpetrated by a group called the Boko Haram.
“It is painful and shocking to have to bury 13 people whose lives have been wasted by deranged individuals. But they are all Catholics who died in the Lord. May their soils rest in the bosom of the Lord,” he declared.
While condemning any attempt to avenge the killings of Christians and Igbos in the North, the bishop said government and the security agencies must do something to bring an end to the colossal loss of human lives and threat to national unity.
“When will all these barbaric human waste end? Who will save this country and end the menace of the Boko Haram? What are the security agencies doing to end this violence?” Ezeokafor continually asked.
Declaring, “Enough is enough,” the bishop urged the people to cry with faith to God for whom vengeance belongs.
“As we pray to God, we must shine our eyes and think through the issue so that we do not carry out the agenda of the Boko Haram, which they want to use religious and ethnic differences to achieve.
The Adamawa State Government was not represented at the event nor sent any formal message, other than that Governor Peter Obi announced that Adamawa State Government has awarded N1 million to each of the families of the deceased. He said the Governor of the state will eventually visit Adazi Nnukwu to condole with the families of the deceased. The people muffled, while some insinuated that the cash promise may actually be by the Anambra state government, as no one who did not deem it fit to send a representative or written condolence would be “kind enough” to give them any money.
Obi also said that in addition to the scholarship that the state government would offer to the children of the deceased, the state government would give each of the families N1million each in the first instance.
Obi who called for patience from the people, said that the Federal government was working hard at finding a solution to the insecurity problems that have claimed the lives of Igbo people in the North.
The Leader of the Anambra State Caucus in the House of Representatives, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, said the House was considering a Terrorism act to check the activities of the likes of the Boko Haram.
Describing the killings as a monumental loss, Ekwunife said, “We are dealing with a people who have no value for human life. And you cannot win such a battle without Christ. As Christians, they teach us not to take revenge by ourselves.”
She said the burden was now on the shoulders of the Governors of the South east States to lead the people on what to do about this development.
The Leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, said MASSOB will announce its stand on Boko Haram and the spate of insecurity in the northern parts of the country after the burial of Chief Emeka Ojukwu, the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra.
The National Chairman of the All progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Victor Umeh, said that the convoking of a national conference where the peoples of Nigeria will discuss how they can relate with one another was has become more imperative than ever before.
He said the people of the South East can no longer accept the gradual but systematic decimation of their kith and kin in the North. Efforts, he said must be made to protect the lives of these people who have contributed immensely to the development of their host communities.
