Peter Obi, presidential candidate
of the Labour Party (LP) in the last elections, says the story of decomposing,
headless bodies from Abia state is a reflection of the scale of insecurity in
the country.
On Sunday, while speaking at a
media parley, Alex Otti, governor of Abia, said 20 headless bodies and
countless human skeletons were found around Lokpanta cattle market in the
state.
The market is located in the
Umunneochi axis of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway.
Obi in a thread on Thursday on
his official X page described the development as “barbaric and
cruel”.
“I read the bone-chilling
story coming out of Abia State, where over 80 bodies were reportedly recovered
around the cattle market, with about 20 headless decomposing bodies,” Obi
said.
“This level of barbarism and
extremely cruel acts only reflects how insecure our environment has been.
“It unearths how insecurity
has continued to ravage many parts of the country, taking innocent lives and
killing the economy.
“I thank the Abia State
Governor, Dr Alex Otti, for taking such a bold step against insecurity in the
State. This is highly emulatable.”
Obi further said while he was
governor of Anambra, he faced a similar situation.
“I recall facing a similar
situation in 2013 as the Governor of Anambra State,” he said.
“I was accompanying
President Goodluck Johnathan to an official engagement outside the country when
I received the sad report of about 35 decomposing bodies floating on Ezu River,
Anambra.
“I had to leave everything
to rush back to the State to attend to the situation and ensure that order was
restored in the vicinity.
“Investigation was
immediately commenced, with autopsies conducted, before the Federal Government
took over the process and asked the State Government to hands off.”
Obi added that security of lives
and property remains the primary duty of any government and key to any
meaningful development.
He called on governments at all
levels to make more efforts in tackling insecurity in the country.
“Security of lives and
property remains the primary duty of any government and key to any meaningful
development we hope to experience as a nation. We must therefore prioritise
it,” Obi said.
“I encourage governments at
all levels to make more efforts in combating insecurity in the nation.”
