BY PETER OKUTU
ABAKALIKI— Following the killing of over 60 persons in the Ezza-Ezillo crisis, Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State, yesterday, expressed worry that people of both communities might never be able to live together due to the scale of killing that trailed last weekend’s renewal of hostility.

The governor’s reaction came against the backdrop of last Saturday’s renewal of hostility between both communities which has so far claimed at least 66 lives.

Elechi, who expressed lamentation while on a visit to the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, FETHA, to commiserate with the victims receiving treatment for gun shot wounds, said activities of the hoodlums who perpetrated the crime would not derail or deter him from ensuring that development got to different parts of the state. He assured the affected communities of maximum security, emphasizing that mobile policemen had been deployed from Cross River, Rivers and Akwa Ibom to protect lives and property in the area.

“The crisis in the area will not derail me. This is only the latest in the series. Everywhere in the world there is peace and there is turbulence. So, we can’t accept that ours is the worse. So it will not

stop the investors from coming to the state.

“My general impression is not as bad as what I saw two days ago in Ezillo, when I personally counted 26 corpses and within 10 minutes more were brought in. It is a disturbing situation no doubt

about it. The ones we saw are the lucky ones; the ones in the hospital here will survive after treatment but the ones we saw in Ezillo were already dead bodies. You need to go there and see things

for yourself.

“I doubt that the people can again leave together with the type of destruction that leaves permanent bad feelings. When you talk of reconciliation which we started in 2008, things were not as bad as we

see them today and so, only God can heal the wounds not human beings.

“Well, no verbal assurances can be as assuring as to what they have put in place. The policemen have arrived, different units from Cross River, Rivers and Akwa Ibom to ensure there is peace and like you

heard me say in my broadcast, the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, has been directed to assess the situation and recommend to government the material needs of the victims so that we can swing into action.”

He noted that the police was doing everything possible to fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act even as he called on the aggrieved communities to state their grievances instead of taking laws into their

hands to perpetrate evil against their fellow human beings.

In his words: “Those of them who are alive are given adequate attention to make sure that there are no more deaths. I believe the people themselves are aware of these efforts. Nonetheless, it is our

duty to guarantee permanent peace there. The police are doing their best to fish out the criminals so that they will be brought to book.

“Let them state their grievances, so that we will understand if such could make them carry out such inhumane action on their fellow human being. Look at the little children, what wrong would they have done? You will agree with me that the perpetrators are mindless. We don’t know what they are looking for. All those behind the atrocities will be brought to book and there is no hiding place for them.

“We took decisions that were necessary when the crisis began, but if the aggrieved persons took us to court, it is left for the court to make pronouncement that we were right or wrong in what we set out to do. government will ensure peace in the place,” he assures.