By Andy Asemota
Following the deteriorating security situation in Ebonyi State occasioned by the alleged indiscriminate arming of cultists and others by the state government, the PDP caucus in the National Assembly has called on security agencies to recover the arms and ammunition.

Briefing journalists in the NASS Complex, Abuja, the caucus led by the first executive governor of Ebonyi, Sen. Sam Egwu, revealed that the security situation in the state had been further compounded wide-scale distribution of Pump-action and AK-47 rifles and Ammunition to young men in the state under the guise of vigilante/Ebube Agu security outfit.

“As it stands today in Ebonyi State, it is impossible to draw a line between the criminal activities of the agents of the state government and that of other groups. Today, Ebonyi State is awash with weapons supplied and distributed by the state government to persons who are undocumented or trained in weapons handling ostensibly for use against perceived political opponents.

“It is important to state here that Governor Nweze Umahi’s resort to arming thugs and cultists across Ebonyi is his response to the refusal of major political stakeholders in the state who rejected and refused to decamp with him from PDP to the APC.

“For these reasons, Governor Umahi has decided to procure and distributed arms and ammunition to thugs, cultists and some of his appointees under the guise of vigilante/Ebube Agu to intimidate and stifle the PDP in Ebonyi State. It is for this reason that Ebonyi State has become the first and only state in the southeast to inaugurate and arm the so-called Ebube-Agu,” the former governor stated.

He explained that as lawmakers and responsible citizens, they were also alarmed and concerned by the senseless killing of security personnel in the lawful discharge of their duties hence they have documented violent attacks, attempted murder, and murder of Ebonyi citizens by agents of the state government in most recent times and sent to the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

Egwu said: “The Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi, is misusing the Ebube Agu security outfit to proliferate arms in Ebonyi State. The world needs to know that his target is not criminals but political opponents. The Ebonyi Government has distributed dozens of guns and ammunition across the state to individuals who are accountable to him.

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“We have pictorial evidence of Development Centre Coordinators and his other staff clutching guns and other dangerous weapons. We also have audio evidence of the governor’s younger brother addressing agents of the Ebonyi State Government on how to deploy their weapons on perceived political opponents.”

Speaking further, the former governor maintained that security agencies should recover and mop up the arms and ammunition distributed to individuals who were neither trained nor documented as to keep track of those in possession of firearms in Ebonyi State.

The position of the state government or the state police command could on the allegations not be confirmed as at press time.