By ANAYO OKOLI

SOME Civil Society Organizations based in the South-east, including Aba-based Human Rights Justice and Peace Foundation [HRJPF], have called on the Abia State  government to pay N50 million compensation to each of the families of the 32 people who died while  detained by the state vigilance outfit, the Bakassi Boys, in August 2005, in Orie Ohabiam, near Aba.

The  victims  were alleged to have suffocated to death in a small cell they were clamped in  by the then vigilance outfit under the government of former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu.

A total of 37 persons were said to have been detained in the small cell by the Bakassi Boys that operated in the state then. 32 of them were alleged to have  died.

Following the public outcry generated by the incident, the then government set up a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the matter. However, the report of the panel has not been made public.

The human rights groups, in a statement,  weekend, in Aba, called on the  state government, “in the spirit of transparency and accountability, to make the  White Paper report public in order to unmask the obnoxious characters involved in that callous and unspeakable circumstance”.

“The Abia Government should also pay N50 million compensation to each of the affected families”, the groups said, pointing out that the money would enable the families to revive their battered lives.

The group warned that if nothing was done after 21 days by the Abia State government, “we shall mobilize the poor masses of Aba (Enyimba City) for a non-violence civil disobedience. This is the time for non-violent revolution. This is the time for the emancipation of the suffering and dying people of our beloved Enyimba City”.