By CHARLES IWUOHA

The South-East Governors Forum on Wednesday condemned in strong terms the alleged killing and beheading of two police officers by youths that is currently circulating on social media.

The Chairman of the forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi, made this known in a statement signed and made available to journalists shortly after an emergency meeting.

The statement reads in part: “We condemn in strong terms the video clip and write-up, we saw in some social and print media, where two policemen were said to have been killed and their heads cut-off by youths who styled themselves as members of IPOB/ESN.

“We have resolved among ourselves to work with security agencies to determine the authenticity of this video/report and if found to be true, to apprehend the perpetrators by all possible means to face the law.

“We are aware of similar videos in the past and which when subjected to forensic review were found to have happened outside Nigeria. We assure Nigerians, especially the police community that we will not rest until we have done justice to this matter.”

The governors revealed their committed efforts to fight against hard drugs in the region, especially the new one called Methamphetamine, locally known in the South East as Mkpurumiri.

“We have decided that all shops and locations where any hard drug is sold will be forfeited to the State Government and all those promoting the trade or indulging in hard drugs shall be seriously isolated to face the law.

“Rehabilitation of those misled into hard drugs is also ongoing. We urge community leaders to give secret phone calls through the special numbers offered by our Governors on security and hard drugs.

“We thank all our youths for the relative peace we enjoy in the South East now. We are committed to your welfare. We want those who were misled to carry arms against our people and security agencies to surrender their arms to the Governors and get rehabilitated back to the society.

“We are aware that the insecurity and killings in the South-East have gone beyond IPOB/ESN as any criminal finds it easy to hide under such a name to commit crimes.

“We are determined to do everything to protect the lives and properties of our people. Our youths are advised to leverage on the various empowerment and agricultural programmes by our Governors to better their lives,” the governors noted.

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