Ebonyi: Police launches operation PUFF ADDER to curb communal clashes.

By Ogodo Mbam, Abakaliki

In a way to curb both inter and intra communial clashes which has continued with impunity in Ebonyi state, the Nigerian Police Force has launched operation PUFF ADDER.

Assistant Inspector-General of Police (Zone 6 Calaber), AIG Musa Kimo inaugurated the operation at the Police Headquarters Abakaliki and called on Ebonyi stakeholders to join hands with the police to ensure the success of the operation.

According to him, stakeholders’ support became necessary because the operation and going by the way it was designed, depended on the people in various communities to achieve successful.

Kimo, who stressed that the co-oporation of the people were needed to achieve the aim of the operation, decried the recent killings in Ikwo and Izzi Local Government Areas of the state.

He said he was grieved when he read of the alleged killings by suspected war lords form Izzi LGA government and warned the two waring communities of Alike-Ikwo to sheath their sword or face the wrath of the tactical team.

He said the operation was a resonance of intelligence driven policy and community intelligence strategy for the purpose of crime control, adding that the operation will help police to identify and arrest criminals in Ebonyi state.

The Commissioner for Police in the state, Awosola Awotunde, urged Ebonyi communities to stop pilling arms and learn how to dialogue when issues arose among them, instead of killing each other.

A Stakeholder, Apostle Emma Mbam from Alike-Ikwo, said why the crisis had lingered was because of nonchallant attitude of stakeholders from the communities involved.

He said stakeholders from the areas affected should stop playing pranks with the lives of the people, adding that the miscreants were not the ones that buy guns for war, rather the stakeholders.

Apostle Mbam, who pointed out that the police and the state government were being as far as the clashes were concerned, called the state government to convene a private meeting were the secrets behind the killings would be revaeled.