Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has assured the leaders of Hausa community of safty in the South East, Nigeria.
The assurance was to douse the fear of the community following the alleged killing of five Fulani herdsmen in the region by criminals.
During their meeting, Okorocha appealed to them to remain peaceful.
The meeting which took place on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at the Government House Owerri, was also attended by the family members of the late pastoralists.
The governor, who disclosed that two of the criminals had been arrested, assured that they would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
His words: “Those who carried out the killings did not target the Fulanis only. They also killed two Igbo men whose corpses were also exhumed with the bodies of the Fulanis. Criminals carried out the killings. And those arrested will be treated as criminals.
“You should not see the incident as a targeted attack on the Fulanis because evidence from the exhumed bodies indicates that two Igbo were among the exhumed bodies. Two of the culprits have been apprehended and will be made to face the consequences of their action. There will be no hiding place for the rest of the hoodlums.”
The governor, however, praised the Hausa community for not taking retaliatory actions, urging them to join hands with the government in fighting the criminals. He said that the Hausa community was safe and of paramount importance to the governors in the South-East zone, stressing, “I commiserate with all of you over the recent murder of five Fulani herdsmen within the Imo/Abia border. Few days ago, I was in Abia State to meet with the governor of that state who is my brother, and we have agreed to put resources together to ensure that such ugly incident does not happen again. We have decided to check the activities of criminals in the border areas.”
Okorocha said though he is an Igbo man, he was born and brought up in the North and empowered by the West and could not therefore afford to be a tribalized Nigerian, reiterating that every Nigerian can do business in any part of the country because the country is one.
The Brigade Commander 34 FAB Obinze, Owerri, Brigadier-General Kay Isiyaku, who came with the leaders of the Hausa community, commended Governor Okorocha for the steps he had taken to ensure that the ugly development would not escalate beyond measure and urged the governor to sustain the peace tempo.
Besides, the leader of the Hausa community in the South East zone, Alhaji Gidado Siddiki, also commended the governor for his peace initiative and also asked that the governor should ensure steady peace between them and their host communities, stressing that though they might have different cultural backgrounds, the fact remains that Nigerians are one.
Alhaji Siddiki said that the actions of the governor since the incident happened helped a lot, adding that if not the governor’s early intervention the problem would have gone out of hand.
