The House of Representatives has begun investigation into the alleged gruesome murder of some vigilante members in Eke, Udi Council Area of Enugu State by the Nigerian army.
Abdulraheem Egidi, the chairman, House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the murder disclosed this when the members of the committee visited Gov. Peter Mbah at the Government House, Enugu on Thursday.
Reports had it that men from the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army allegedly opened fire on some members of the Eke Vigilante Group who were on their way to respond to a distress call in their community, killing two of them including a woman and inflicting gunshot injury on three others.
Egidi who expressed the committee’s resolve to unravel the reasons behind the unlawful killings of the Enugu indigenes, stressing that the National Assembly “is worried by the way and manner the lives of Nigerians are being wasted on a daily basis, and resolved to end this by whichever means possible.”
While briefing Mbah who was represented by his Deputy, Ifeanyi Ossai, of their mission, Egidi expressed displeasure with the way the Nigeria soldiers killed some vigilante groups who were responding to distress call on banditry and kidnapping, added that they were on a fact-finding assignment in the state.
According to him, the investigation followed a motion moved by a member representing Ezeagu/Udi Federal Constituency, Mr Sunday Umeha, to investigate the “gruesome murder of some Nigerians by soldiers in the state on the 29th of June, 2023.
He explained that following that motion, the House of Representatives resolved to embark on a fact-finding mission.
“The House considering this as a matter of urgent public interest as it affects the lives of Nigerians, resolved to set up this ad hoc committee to among other things; investigate what actually happened on that fateful day, and punish those found culpable.
“Visit the victims critically lying at the hospital, and families of the deceased, and urge the National Emergency Management Agency to provide relief materials to the victims of the gunshots,” he said.
