Abia flays unconfirmed report of 55 shallow graves in Abia forest

Abia State government has decried a report from some sections of the media that claimed that the Department of State Services (DSS) uncovered 55 shallow graves in a forest in the state, where the remains of five Hausa-Fulani men were allegedly buried.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu in a press statement signed by Godwin Adindu, his chief press secretary and made available to BusinessDay, said the good people of Abia feel highly embarrassed by the report, which was capable of causing ethnic/communal crisis in the country.

Ikpeazu observed that stakeholders in information management in the country should be conscious of national security and therefore be cautious and reticent in their approach to such sensitive news.

The governor affirmed that checks with security agencies in Abia confirmed that the information did not emanate from any of the security units in the state.

According to Ikpeazu, both the DSS in Abia, Police and Army have all denied ever issuing such information, “If anybody or group wrote a petition to the headquarters in Abuja, the most professional approach should be for the headquarters to confer with their departments in Abia. There is a Brigade Commander here; there is Director of DSS and there is Commissioner of Police, with a Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) attached to his office.

“All the units have told me they never released any such information.”

He also expressed concern that the media organs that published the news did not consider the sensitive nature of that information to national peace and security as to have also conferred and confirmed from their correspondents in Abia, stressing that none of the reports came with the by-line of a correspondent in Abia State.

Consequently, the governor condemned what he called “flagrant abuse of professionalism,” by all the parties involved in the dissemination of this volatile and sensitive news, which had not only embarrassed the government of Abia State, but was also capable of raising tension and ethnic acrimony in the state.

He re-emphasised that the government of Abia State had not received any official report in this regard and therefore warned the instigators of this bad report to rethink their mischief, stressing, “Abia State enjoys a peaceful and cordial inter-ethnic relations.”