Police arrest seven suspected killers of Duke's aide
From Aniete Akpan, Calabar
SEVEN persons have been arrested in Mbube, Cross River State by the police in connection with last weekend's murder of the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Inter-governmental Affairs, Abuja liaison office, Mr. Eshu Egbelo.
Also in a state broadcast yesterday, the state Governor, Mr. Donald Duke condemned the murder and charged the police to be on the alert.
Confirming the arrest yesterday to The Guardian, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Eze Joseph Uzonnah said: "seven persons are in the net and they were picked up on Sunday."
He said a unit of policemen was maintaining surveillance at Mbube while search was on for other suspects in the murder. He acknowledged, however, that no confessional statement had been obtained yet.
In the broadcast, the governor declared: "The perpetrators of this dastardly act may think they have triumphed over their perceived enemy. But they are wrong. This, is one murder that would never be allowed to go unpunished.
"Let me warn at this point, that persons who house any of the suspects involved would be treated as accomplices. I have equally directed the police to be on the alert to prevent any breach of the peace throughout the state."
The governor traced Egbelo's murder to ethnic sentiments.
He said: "Fellow Cross Riverians, in the year 2002 when activities of Atam Peoples Congress became widely known in the state, I did warn, through several broadcasts to the people of our state, of the danger posed by a small group who in their efforts yielded to the temptation of whipping up ethnic sentiments amongst our people."
Egbelo's offence was said to be his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his support for Duke, an Efik man at the expense of his kinsman during the last gubernatorial polls.
To douse this ethnic sentiment, Duke said after the elections, he met with the leaders of the Atam Congress. "Tribalism is like a monster. It could be easily reared, it could be nurtured with every excitement. But once it has attained maturity, it can no longer be controlled, not even by its master whom it can equally devour."
He added: "Today, fellow citizens, the wild seeds of ethnicity, which members of the Atam Congress sowed in the minds of Cross Riverians have unfortunately germinated and begun to manifest in the activities of some of our people.
"Let us accept that every Cross Riverian is free to engage in politics and outwit his political opponents. Politics must however be played according to laid down rules. That is what is expected of civilized societies. We do not have to destroy our society and ourselves in the process. And, nothing destroys more thoroughly and more ferociously than ethnicism and fanaticism. The ethnic card would certainly consume a state like ours where various ethnic groups line together."
According to him, the murder was committed by persons who constituted themselves into the Atam Peoples Congress. He added that Egbelo's blood was on the hands of the murderers whether they were repentant or not.
The state House of Assembly yesterday passed a resolution condemning the killing and urged the police to bring the culprits to book. Egbelo was murdered last Friday by his kinsmen after they had beaten him to pulp.
