Ngbo/Agila Crisis: Benue LG Chairman Threatens Court Action Against Ebonyi  Govt Over Falsehood

Chairman of Ado Local Government Council of Benue State, Chief James Oche , on Friday, accused Ebonyi State Government of inciting and  sponsoring Ngbo community in  Ohaukwu local government area of Ebonyi State to launch violent attacks on vulnerable people of Agila community  in Benue State.

Chief Oche  in a statement  made available to newsmen in Makurdi, the local council the council is in consultation with  legal practitioners with a view to instituting litigation against the Ebonyi State government for the sustained falsehood against the people of Agila community.

The chairman expressed dismay that  government of  Ebonyi state had sustained the unfounded allegation that the Agila community was responsible for the April 12, 2021 attack on Ngbo communities in Ohaukwu Local Government of the state, a development the chairman described as unnecessary and inciting.

He alleged that the N20 Million given to the Ngbo vigilante to procure security outfits as indicated in a press statement by the Ebonyi State government and the sustained accusation that Agila people were responsible for the attack, amounted to inciting and empowering of the Ngbo people to attack Agila people.

Oche said the Ebonyi State government should be held responsible if any Agila person is attack henceforth.

“The surviving victims of Ngbo recent attack, their family members, the chief security officer of the Ngbo people Leonard Igwe, the Ebonyi State Chapter of the PDP and newspapers that did investigative journalism on the attack all corroborated the truth that, the attack was from Fulani herdsmen and not Agila people.

“I wondered why the Ebonyi State Government was hell bent on accusing my  people. This false accusation has caused panic among my people in Agila as most of them have deserted their community for fear of attack and now taken refuge in Igumale and Apa-Agila. As I speak  we have created an IDPs camps in the local government headquarters with over 3000 IDPs”.

Recall that on April 28, 2021, the Ebonyi State government in a press statement after an Emergency State Security Executive Council meeting, accused the Agila people of Ado Local Government of Benue State of engaging the Fulani to perpetuate the attack of  April 12, against the Ngbo people.