**Bid to forcefully cede Ette community to Enugu State
One person was killed while about 1,200 others were displaced in Etteh Community in Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi State, following attack by gunmen suspected to be from Enugu State.
Speaking to journalists in Lokoja yesterday, spokesperson of the Ette Community Development Association, (ECDA), Abdullahi Mohammed Sani, said about 35 houses were burnt down.
He alleged that the attack was sponsored by a member of Enugu State House of Assembly, “in his bid to forcefully cede Ette community to Enugu State,” adding: “At least one life was lost in addition to various degrees of injuries suffered by several people.
About 1,200 people have been displaced while business centers were either burnt down, vandalized or looted. Robbery and arson are still ongoing in the area as we speak.”
He said the palace of the traditional ruler of Ette, Chief Aaron Ako, was burnt down by the attackers.
“The first step to halting this so-called Enugu initiative to take over Ette by any means necessary, is to cause the re-opening of the lawfully established Ette Divisional Police Station, which was closed down,” he said.
He averred that despite the Supreme Court judgement which mandated the two states to maintain status-quo until the issue of land is settled by the National Boundary Commission, “the people of Enugu have continued with their attacks.”
Continuing, he said: “We wish to crave the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Middle Belt Forum and the Northern State Governors Forum to collaborate with the Kogi State Government, to galvanise all our regional machineries and resources to resist and abort the plot to move Ette District from the North to the South-east.
That is because the exercise will grievously alter the geo-political, historical, cultural map and original territorial boundary of Northern Nigeria forever.”
When contacted, the Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, Elvis Igiebor, said he would get back to our correspondent, but he was yet to do that at the time this report was filed.
