Ebonyi women protest monarch’s murder
Wilson Adekumola
The Umuezeokoha community of Ezza North Local Government Area of Enonyi State was thrown into mourning mood as women came out in their numbers, on Thursday, to protest the gruesome murder of their monarch.
Women numbering over 100, clad in black attire, came out in mass to protest the brutal murder of their king with high emotions.
Vangaurd said the victim was the Chairman of Ezza Traditional rulers council, His Majesty Eze Igboke Ewa, who was last Sunday evening shot dead by unknown gunmen suspected to be political thugs in the State.
It was gathered that his offence, was because he was not supporting a particular party, ahead of the 2023 general election.
The women, who were in a mournful state, were seen matching along Umuezeokoha road with placards of various inscriptions, such as “We are not happy”, Enough of the killings”, Stop politicizing our Eze’s death”, “No more killings,” “Shed blood no more in Umuezeokoha”, “Our Igwe is gone”, “Umuezeokoha is sacred,” “We value life”, “Where is our Ezeogo” among others.
Dr Mrs Ngozi Ogeta, who spoke on behalf of the women, called for the intervention of the State Government and relevant Non-Governmental Organizations, and NGOs into the matter, .w
Why lamenting the unfortunate incident, she submitted that they were not happy over the sudden death of their traditional ruler.
According to her, “We are mourning the death of our monarch. We are gathered here today to tell the whole world how our Monarch was murdered.
“We are not happy with the way the death of the king is being attributed to politics. People should not mock us because our king is dead. We have lost 16 of our stakeholders and we are not happy that our king has been taken away from us.
“They have pursued us in our places of aboard. What have we done wrong?. The person that killed our king will not go scot-free, whether it is our son or our enemies. Ebonyi State Government and NGOs should help us. Our place is not known for killings but for love and peace.
“We, the women of Umuezeokoha have gathered and God must avenge the death of our king. Let his death not be politicized. We, the Women and daughters of Umuezeokoha are not happy about this. They should leave us alone.”
At the protest, Mrs Eunice Francis Ezaka prayed to God to avenge the death of their king and bring the perpetrators to book.
“Our king was a kind man. We love him. It’s a great loss for us and we advise people do not to make mockery of what happened to us. Putting politics into the incident is putting more pain into it.They should not use our Eze’s death for political purposes.”