Ndume, Ohuabuhwa, Murray-Bruce, others named in Senate committee to probe Enugu killings by Fulani herdsmen

The Senate has constituted an ad choc committee to investigate the killing of members of some Enugu State communities, last Monday, by suspected Fulani herdsmen with a view to proffering solutions.
The Senate asked the Committee to start work next week, mandating members drawn from the six geo-political zones, to also conduct a Public Hearing on the issues to draw inputs from members of the public.
The Committee members on herdsmen’s attack comprises Senator Ali Muhammed Ndume as Chairman, Senator Isiaka Adeleke (South-West), Mao Ohuabuhwa (South-East), Abdullahi Adamu (North-East), Shehu Sani (North-West) and Ben Bruce Murray (South-South).
The decision by the Senate emanated from a motion moved by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu) on “The Gory Massacre of the people of Nimbo Community of Uwani Local Government of Enugu State.
The Senator drew the attention of his colleagues to how herdsmen who he said were armed with sophisticated weapons invaded Nimbo community at about 4.00am on Monday April 25, killing and maiming people in the community in cold blood.
He said seven communities including Nimbo, Ugwuijoro, Ekwuru, Ebor, Enugu, Umuome and Ugwuechara were also affected.
He said the herdsmen entered Enugu state through Kogi and thereafter started unleashing mayhem on the targeted communities by shooting, hacking, knifing, matcheting and slitting throats of unsuspecting residents of the villages whose buildings they torched.
According to Utazi, by the dawn of the day, not less than 38 people had been killed, while over 100 persons sustained varying degrees of injury, with domestic live stocks slaughtered in the process.
He said countless houses and other property were razed, adding that at the moment, efforts were still on to recover more bodies of those so gruesomely murdered.
The Senator lamented that Nimbo town was in panic and had already been deserted as the human population according to him have been moving into neighbouring communities like Nkpologu, Uvuru, Adani and those around Nsukka towards southward of Omasi in Anambra state.
Senators while debating the motion spoke with high tone of emotion in which case, speakers from the north made spirited attempt to dissuade their colleagues from the south from believing that the herdsmen who attacked the communities in Enugu were, indeed, Fulanis.
During the debate, Senator Godswil Akpabio, Minority Leader dismissed claims that the rampaging herdsmen came from Mali, Niger and Chad, wondering how non-Nigerians would find it easy to beat the security ports to attack core areas and communities in Nigeria.
He said the solution to the menace by herdsmen lies in the mounting of security surveillance across the country, in which case those living in the hinterland would be sensitized enough to be more security conscious.
Professor Sola Adeyeye had earlier spoken in the same direction when he called for return of Community policing which he stressed the authorities in Nigeria have consistently been rejecting because of fear of possible abuse as witnessed in the past.
He argued that the paralysis of the local government system in Nigeria has also been encouraging the easy security breaches in communities across the federation.