The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate and Senator representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District, Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi, has condemned the alleged harassment and public humiliation of Mr. Michael Eje by youths of Nkpor, Anambra State, for reportedly killing a sacred snake.

Eje is an indigene of Ebonyi State and hails from Onueke in the Ezza South Local Government Area of the state.

In a viral circulating video on social media, the old man was seen being paraded around the community while being beaten and ridiculed for killing a snake which indigenes of the state considered sacred.

Narrating what happened, Eje explained that he was working at a building site for when the snake hidden beneath some old blocks attacked him and he in self defense, killed it.

According to him, he had no prior knowledge that killing a snake was an abomination in the community.

Reacting to the incident, Senator Nwebonyi described the incident as barbaric and called on the Anambra State Government under Governor Charles Soludo, to publicly denounce the act and take immediate steps to prevent a recurrence.

While expressing shock that such dehumanizing treatment could be meted out to someone in the 21st century for what he termed a natural act of self-defense, the senator urged the governor to attend to the matter with the same urgency with which he attended to the renaming of Abakaliki street.

He further directed the chairman of the Ebonyi State Indigenes Association in Anambra, Chief Moses Ofoke, to obtain a first-hand account from the victim and his wife for necessary intervention.

Narrating his ordeal alongside his wife, Eje recounted how he was later fined N50,000 after he was beaten and forced to chant dirges for the snake while being paraded through the community.

He expressed gratitude for the senator’s swift response and called for justice as well as protection of rights of residents in the state especially non-indigenes.