Group writes Obaseki on security, health risk of influx of northerners into Edo

A cultural group in Edo State, Ewu Progress Foundation, has written to quickly notify Governor Godwin Obaseki of the mass exodus of northerners into the state at this period of coronavirus crisis in Nigeria.

The Foundation in a letter signed by Fidelis Edokpa, President, and Pastor Henry Aimenkhena, Chairman, Board of Trustees, stated that confirmed information revealed that northerners are entering Edo State territory in thousands through heavy duty trucks loaded with countless motorcycles. They demanded urgent intervention of the governor to halt the mass migration of northerners into the state.

They declared: “As we write, over 100 of them has been apprehended at Irrua in Esan Central Local Government Area, they are currently being interrogated by security agents at Irrua as some of them tested positive to the dreaded Covid 19 virus.

“This is happening despite restrictions placed on interstate movement as part of the efforts to curtail the spread the Covid 19, especially, from the northern axis which has been a recent epicenter of the dreaded virus.

“Your Excellency, sir, we are all aware of the grave danger posed by such movement in this perilous times and we are, thus, asking you to use your office as the Chief Security officer of the state, to among other things instruct the Chairman of Etsako West Local Government Area to as a matter of urgency deploy all security personnel at his disposal to stop this North/South migration of Northerners.

“Secondly, we are asking the governor to alert all the traditional rulers in these domains to stop further influx of Northerners to their territories and most importantly, we are humbly requesting the governor to mobilize all the state security architecture towards the Edo North and Central to stop this movement without delay.”

They demanded the governor to urgently treat the issue as a matter of life and death. They also acquainted Governor Obaseki that recently northern governors have been relocating the Almajiris to their state of origin.