New yam festival turns bloody in Ebonyi community as Police disrupt celebration

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Ihie village, Ishiagu Autonomous community, Ivo Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, was the site of many hospitalizations and injuries involving no fewer than ten individuals.

According to ZINGTIE, chaos erupted in the town on Saturday after a state command police force attacked the area and interfered with the new yam celebration.

It was discovered that the community was almost in a celebratory mood, with canopies erected and other preparations completed in anticipation of the event’s start, when police officers brandishing weapons entered the area in five Hilux vans and destroyed everything that had been set up for the celebration.

Sound systems, plastic chairs, tables, canopies, electricity-generating devices, and other valuables are among the destroyed items.

In addition, the cops removed the cannon weapons that the revelers had placed on the ground.

When the police saw the journalists, they gave them the order to leave the area and issued a warning not to take any images within the neighborhood.

The journalists promptly fled the scene to a nearby community, and the police started using tear gas and demolishing a lot of the decorations that had been put up for the celebration.

Tear gas was used on women who were cooking for the New Yam Festival.

Additionally, tear gas was used against Peculiar Ajah, an ill young woman undergoing care in her room.

“I was on a drip on my bed inside our room when the policemen were shooting the teargas. They shot the teargas directly at our house and I started losing breath until I was smuggled out of the house”, she stated.

A 77-year-old man in the community, Leonard Ekeh described the incident as a desecration of the culture of the community and called on the state Commissioner of Police to investigate the matter.

He said ” I am not happy with what the policemen did in my community. How can you come into our community and disrupt our culture?

“We have never witnessed this type of thing in our community and I call the Commissioner of Police to investigate what those policemen did.

” I was not around when the policemen were firing the teargas. I would have asked them to fire me, I am ready to die, I am ready to die for my people. At 77 years, I can’t fear anybody “.

The community’s president general, Ume Cletus, stated that the 29th of September is set aside for a new yam celebration each year and questioned why the event was interrupted.

He claimed that the community’s traditional ruler has been inciting unrest and has arrested some people repeatedly, forcing the others to vote against him in a vote of no confidence.

DSP Joshua Ukandu, the state’s police spokesperson, stated he was unaware of the occurrence.

On the other hand, he pledged to bring up the issue with the Ivo police division.

Our correspondent was unable to get in touch with the community’s traditional ruler since they were not using their phones.

This occurred just twenty hours after Emmanuel Ajah, the local government chairman, banned all activities across the Council due to insecurity.

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