Assailants Kill Umuoji Community President-General In Anambra

Only a year ago, the President-General of the Obosi community in Anambra State’s Idemili-North Local Government Area was butchered to death by unknown people who have yet to be identified and apprehended by Nigerian police.

Another President-General, this time the President-General of the Umuoji community, Chief Silas Onyima, was assassinated in his bathroom at home on Friday night last week by yet-to-be-identified individuals.

The same fate befell the President-General of the Nimo community, who was shot multiple times before dying in his car. According to a source who requested anonymity, this is the tragic story of PGs who were assassinated or murdered in cold blood while on active duty.

According to the source, Anambra State’s Presidents-General are being slaughtered like chickens because they are always the prime target for assassination. Worse, every time these heinous incidents occurred, the government showed little empathy, let alone condoled with the bereaved family.

The source expressed concern that little or no effort is being made to identify the killers of the affected PGs or those responsible for the killings. That the safety and security of PGs are no longer guaranteed, as evidenced by the way and manner in which they were slaughtered like chickens, and that the perpetrators are free to roam the communities without being caught.

Although Prof. Charles Nwadigwe, the 1st National Vice President of the Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU), believes that insecurity exists throughout the country, he believes that the insecurity of Presidents-General is unique because they are community leaders and public servants.

Nwadigwe, a former President-General of the Ikem Ivite community, stated that the attacks were carried out by those who are upset that criminalities are not permitted to take precedence over civility and the rule of law.

He stated that the heinous murder of Umuoji President-General was one too many and serves as a wake-up call for PGs to take proactive measures to ensure their personal security and safety.

He urged the Anambra State Government and security agencies to respond to the situation and apprehend the killers of PG Umuoji Chief Silas Onyima, adding that the death of the PG has made it critical that the security architecture in the communities be restructured, even as he stated that ASATU will pursue the matter until the Umuoji PG killers are apprehended and brought to justice.

Comrade Bonny Ozo Nkwuaku, the National Laison Officer of ASATU in Anambra-Central Senatorial Zone and President-General emeritus of the Enugwu-Ukwu community in Njikoka Local Government Area, also stated that PGs are like endangered species in Anambra State and urged the government to beef up security around them.

Nkwuaku proposed that even if the PGs were not assigned conventional police, they could be assigned local vigilantes to play special roles in their security. He stated that it was not long ago that the President-General of the Obosi community was assassinated similar to the assassination of Omor and Nanka Presidents-General were still fresh until the very recent gruesome murder of Umuoji PG just last week.

The former Enugwu-Ukwu PG who stated that no arrests were being made when these assassinations occurred, maintained that such heinous crimes were allowed to fly as no arrests or prosecutions were made to bring those involved to justice, adding that it was time the government came to the rescue of Presidents-General.

Nkwuaku explained that PGs render selfless service to the communities and that no PG is being paid by the town union yet they are brutally killed and their families left to suffer untold hardships.

Investigations however revealed that a delegation of ASATU led by the National President Chief Barr. Titus Nnabuike Akpudo, have paid a condolence visit to the family of the late Umuoji PG to commiserate with them over the loss.

This reporter also gathered that ASATU has resolved to get to the root of the matter because the association has lost about five Presidents-General to malicious killings and assassinations.