2 hours ago
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The General Manager of the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency, ASEPA, Ogbonnaya Okereke, condemned the recent violent incident in Umuahia involving a member of a disbanded monitoring team.
During an environmental enforcement exercise over the weekend, a male resident of Umuahia sustained deep machete cuts inflicted by a disbanded team member and is presently in the hospital.
The ASEPA General Manager, Ogbonnaya Okereke, who visited the victim in the hospital on Sunday, condemned the unwarranted provocation that led to the crisis.
He noted that there was no justification for the men of the ASEPA Monitoring Team to resort to such violence, even when there are laid-down procedures for handling resistance by individuals while performing their lawful functions.
“ASEPA Umuahia monitoring team was disbanded a few weeks back because of unhealthy sharp practices and seeming high-handedness.
“The agency has set up a 10-man monitoring team to operate in the interim pending a reconstitution of the full monitoring team,” Okereke said.
He further dismissed reports that the violent incident was triggered by a supremacy battle among cult groups.
Okereke also, however, said that his office had been receiving reports about various attacks from environmental offenders in Umuahia and its environs, warning that the State government would not tolerate such attacks.
ASEPA GM condemns violence as disbanded team member machetes Abia resident
