Explain our crimes, Imo traditional rulers plead gunmen

Still in panic, traditional rulers in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State, who were assaulted by some gunmen penultimate Tuesday, have implored the attackers to notify them their sins so they can ask for forgiveness.

In the attack that claimed the lives of two monarchs, the traditional rulers said that since the incident took place during their monthly statutory meeting at the local government headquarters, they had been in shock as to what they could have done to deserve the gruesome attack.

Speaking to The Nation correspondent in Owerri, the traditional ruler of Okponakume Autonomous Community of Njaba LGA, Eze Victor C. Duru, said he could not fathom why anybody would want the royal fathers dead.

Narrating further what happened on that fateful day, he said: “The meeting started at 11am. There were three reasons why they called for the meeting. First part was the distribution of 20,000 free exercise books to all primary/secondary schools in Njaba LGA. The headmasters and principals were there.

“So, when they finished the distribution, the second stage of the meeting was that the president-generals were asked to submit three projects from each autonomous community for inclusion in the 2022 budget. Each PG would stand up to allow his Eze to confirm it, the Eze would sign the document and the PG would present it to the Interim Transition Committee Chairman.

When they finished, they were all asked to go so that the traditional rulers would now go into our normal monthly statutory meeting. We went into the meeting but we couldn’t read the minutes of the last previous two meetings because it was late, after 3pm.

Then the chairman started informing us that he has a project in each of the autonomous communities at his own LG level, when suddenly we heard gunshots. Everyone started diving for cover and then…. In fact, what happened next, whenever I start recalling it, my blood pressure will rise again.

“Whenever I tell the story, I remember what happened, because Eze Samson Osunwa was sitting by my right hand because he didn’t dive completely for cover. He was one of the two Ezes that died.”

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Although he was not injured in the attack, he said he was able to escape death because he dived to take cover against the advice of the other traditional ruler that was killed.

He added: “I heard when Eze Anayo Durueburoe was shouting, ‘Don’t run, don’t run!’ Maybe because Osunwa was sitting next to him and I was sitting next to Osunwa. But I didn’t take his instruction; I dived for cover.

“When I got up, I saw Anayo still laying on his seat and Osunwa on the ground. My head got swollen.

“When the hoodlums left and I came out, I saw my driver outside with bullet wounds on his left hand. I tried to carry him but I couldn’t carry him. Nobody was helping each other because everyone was scampering to go home until one other traditional ruler from my side, Eze Umueze, came and assisted me to lift my driver into my car, and that was how we came home.

“It was very traumatic.”

He said that up until now, none of the traditional rulers knows why they were attacked.

“We don’t know why they attacked us. If we know the persons who are attacking us, then we will know how to avoid them. If we have offended anybody, we have not been told what offence we committed; we will apologise to the person or tell him we are sorry.

“I don’t know what a traditional ruler will do to offend the assailants. We don’t know where the attackers came from, whether it was targeted at us or not.

“Let the security operatives unravel what happened. If we know the people who attacked us and why, we will beg for forgiveness.

“We want to know our offence. Or is it a misplacement of anger targeted at somebody else? We don’t know. Or when the government invites us to a meeting, we should not attend, we don’t know. We don’t know if it is anger against government being transferred to us. We want to know.

We don’t know whether the attack will continue or whenever they see us, they will shoot us. This is war without war front; we don’t know how to escape it.”

The traditional ruler of Acharaji-Akah Autonomous Community, Njaba LGA, Eze Ken Uzoho, said he had no comment because he was still troubled by the incident.

He said: “I don’t have any comment for now because the shock is still troubling me. What happened, I cannot believe it. But my only joy is that the good Lord who deprived death from getting me, His name alone be glorified, because what God did for me, no man has ever done it for me, and He who made it possible for me to escape from such evil setting, I don’t know how to thank Him.”