From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State government yesterday accepted the judgement of the Federal High Court Abakaliki which disbanded the operations of Ebubeagu security outfit in the state.
Governor David Umahi who accepted the judgement of the court on behalf of the government and people of Ebonyi State during a live broadcast on Friday, said Ebubeagu has ceased to exist in th state in line with the court judgement until the State government successfully secured a stay of execution from Appeal Court.
He however announced that the Ebonyi State House of Assembly has successfully passed into law another two sets of vigilante outfits for the state.
He gave the names of the new security outfits as Ebonyi State Neighborhood Watch and Ebonyi State Vigilante Corps.
The Governor who immediately inaugurated the two security outfits, said they will be partnering with the police and other Security agencies in fighting crimes in the state pending the return of Ebubeagu.
He said he chose to obey the judgement of the Federal High Court out of his respect for the judiciary, noting that another court of coordinate jurisdiction had given another judgement in favour of Ebubeagu.
He said “on the issue of Ebubeagu,i have directed that Ebubeagu will not function in the State until the stay of Execution is granted and appeal is entered, this is in obedience to the rule of law and respect for our Judiciary which I have great respect for, whether the judgement is good for our people or bad, it is the judgement of the Court.
“However, it must be noted that just about a month ago, another Court of equal jurisdiction had passed a judgement restraining anybody from disbanding Ebubeagu, what it means is that I have two judgements on the same subject and I could choose the one to obey if I were not a lover of the Judiciary, however, I have decided to obey the later judgement that says that Ebubeagu should not function, so for now, Ebubeagu should not function while we process the stay of Execution and appeal entered at Enugu and Ebubeagu when granted will begin to function again.
“However, let me thank the House of Assembly for passing into law another two sets of Vigilante outfits for Ebonyi State which process started in 2021 but they graciously passed it few days ago and that is Ebonyi State Neighborhood Watch, let me say that we have had this Neighbourhood Watch even before now far back as 2015 and they did tremendously very well so the law is back and they are empowered to function. Another vigilante that has come into effect is the Ebonyi State Vigilante Corps and this will also function in the State and I am hereby inaugurating these new outfits officially today and by the laws of the State they are empowered to function, however, when Ebubeagu comes back to do their jobs and these two vigilante outfits, my directive is that they must not infringe on the rights of anybody’
