By IFEOMA AKA

The Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State has banned masquerades in the area from carrying weapons, including canes, and vowed to deal with any masquerade who violates the order.

The council also warned masquerades to stop chasing, attacking or flogging women, girls, and perceived enemies.

The council chairman, Dr Eric Odo, handed down this warning on Monday during the monthly Holy Mass at the Council?s Headquarters in Ogbede.

Odo emphasised that the current administration had established measures to curb the violent actions of masquerades, who had been causing harm to innocent citizens in the area.

He pointed out that some of these violent incidents had led to untimely deaths of many, while others were battling life-threatening injuries.

While reiterating that masquerades are not banned in the LGA, the council chairman stated emphatically that their activities must be conducted in an orderly, civil and acceptable manner.

According to him, the government will not sit down and watch masquerades, whether Odoh, Akatakpa, or Omaba continue to harass our people, particularly women and girls.

?We have inaugurated a committee to address domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence, and it will take action against the harm caused by these masquerades.

?It is our responsibility as the government to protect the lives and property of the people. As such, my government will carry out this responsibility to the latter.

?We will go to any length to curtail the excesses of these masquerades, including enacting a law and also jailing any masquerade who defaults the order.

?The fight against domestic and gender-based violence requires the collective effort of everyone to enable the fight to be successful,? Odo said.

Earlier, the Priest-in-Charge of St. Agnes Catholic Church, Rev. Fr. Valentine Mbah, said the masquerades had been doing the unthinkable in the area under the guise of culture.

Mbah regretted that the actions of these masquerades did not reflect any culture, stressing that they were not only harassing innocent citizens but also causing nuisance in the society.

The clergy asked the state and local governments to stop the masquerades from blocking roads constructed with public funds, saying: ?the government alone can stop the atrocities committed by the masquerades.? (NAN)

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