Residents Apprehensive As S’east Governors Proffer Knee Jerk
The operatives appear to have been called back to man their stations. Hardly can policemen be found in their uniforms on the streets except those on special assignments or accompanying a high profile person.
In Anambra State, the situation has been taking its toll on businesses and other activities, as residents now struggle to get to their homes before 7.00pm for fear of becoming victims of attacks by hoodlums.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Others React
In its reaction to the development, pan Igbo socio- cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has insisted that until the leadership of the country embraced justice, fairness and truth in dealing with its people, agitations would continue in several ways as people seek to vent their anger.
National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, stated that decisions like the recent appointment of the Inspector General of Police, which dashed the aspiration of an Igbo man occupying a top position in the security architecture of the country under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, fuel crisis.
He said: “You cannot continue to trample on the people at will and anyhow you feel and not expect them to react. Some persons are on the streets attacking security facilities and killing policemen. No one can tell exactly who they are. But one thing is sure – they may not be happy about the goings on. We feel that peace can naturally take place when there is equity and justice, not when one segment of the country is being oppressed to the point of asking them their identity. That is the problem.”
He stated that Ohanaeze Ndigbo would continue to work for the interest of the generality of the country and appealed to those behind the attacks to sheathe the sword and embrace peace in the interest of the overall development of the nation. A university lecturer, Dr. Okezue Amah, stated that the deteriorating security situation in the Southeast calls for serious concerns. Speaking with The Guardian on the development, he stated that the issue of security of the zone has been in the front burner since the conclusion of the 2019 general election, lamenting however that the leadership of the zone had played politics with it.
“For instance, we were here when we started hearing about killings and kidnappings here and there. We felt that the various governments in the zone were serious about tackling the issue. Unfortunately, after several meetings and promises, nothing came out of it till now. Before their very eyes, their people were being killed and they did nothing. Today, it has graduated from killing ordinary persons to snatching guns from security personnel. By the time the entire guns in the southeast are snatched, I do not know what will become of the people. It is an unfortunate situation,” he stated.
Stressing that the governors did nothing when reports went viral about the invasion of the zone by persons whose motives were questionable during the COVID- 19 lockdown, he added: “Whatever security breach we are having in this zone should be linked to those people who were brought in by the cover of the night in various trucks. They have settled with us and are now being supplied weapons by those who ensured that they were moved into the zone even when there were restrictions on interstate movements. We will have to live with it until a day God says it is over.”
Governors’ Intervention
Despite the rash of condemnations and reactions that have trailed the recent disturbances, the governors of the southeast zone seem to have become handicapped to address the problem. They had unanimously shot down the call by the people for a regional security outfit in the zone preferring rather to embrace the Federal Government’s community policing model. But they appear to have nothing to offer in the face of the ravaging insecurity.
Efforts to speak with the Director General of the Southeast Governors’ Forum, Uchenna Otuanya, on how the state chief executives plan to protect their people and forestall further attacks on security facilities in the zone did not yield fruits. Otuanya neither answered his call nor responded to text messages sent to his mobile number on the issue.
But the Forum’s Communications Director, Mr. Mike Uda, stated that the governors were yet to meet or speak on the matter.
“We shall surely communicate their position as soon as it is taken. I know they will soon take a position after studying the entire situation,” he stated.
Findings, however, showed that the governors have taken some measures to beef up security in their various states. For instance, in Enugu State, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has banned the operation of tricycles from 9.00pm daily until further notice.
Announcing the order, the governor said it was part of the
efforts to check crimes allegedly being committed by some individuals using the tricycle.
In the same vein, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has imposed an indefinite curfew on Umuahia, Aba, Arochukwu and Ohafia local councils of the state. The curfew, which is effective from 10.00pm to 6.00am daily, was announced immediately after the attacks on the Correctional Service facility and Police headquarters in Owerri. Abia is bordered by Imo State to the West.
In Anambra State, Governor Willie Obiano, who addressed the state, had after condemning the spate of attacks on security agencies in the state, given the assurance that his government was doing all it could to apprehend those responsible. He banned vehicles with tinted glasses from plying any road in the state as well as vehicles with covered number plates. In Ebonyi State, Governor Dave Umahi, who could not come to terms with the killing of over 20 persons during an attack in broad daylight, had asked the vigilante group in the state to do all within their power to protect the people. He had also given the assurance that his government would not rest until those who caused the killings were arrested and prosecuted. In Imo State, Governor Hope Uzodinma appears overwhelmed by the development and has continued to speak from both sides of his mouth with regard to the cause of the attacks and whom to blame for it.
The governor had accused the Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB) of perpetrating the attacks and asked the security agencies to defend themselves with their rifles against members of the group. But he later blamed aggrieved politicians for the attacks.
His words: “Their ( attackers) tactics is that they try to identify
grievances of people in a particular area. If it is in Imo State and probably there are some IPOB people who are not happy, they hire hoodlums from outside Imo State. They bring them in pretending to be IPOB and they commit these crimes and they go away.
“So, it is not about IPOB. Yes, we agree, we have aggrieved IPOB members but I can tell you those who are doing this destruction, most of them were brought in from outside Imo State.”
Some Nigerians have, however, asked the governor to blame himself and the Commissioner of Police in the state for allegedly failing to adhere to instructions and intelligence reports.
A rights group, the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network ( CRRAN), accused the duo of neglecting an intelligence report from the Department of State Services ( DSS), which warned of a looming attack.
CRRAN in a statement by its President, Olu Omotayo, quoted a former Deputy Director of the DSS, Dennis Amachree, as saying that the “same intelligence report was repeatedly sent 72 hours and 24 hours before the attack but both the state governor and the police commissioner failed to act on this report until the mayhem which led to loss of lives and properties.”
Omotayo added: “In normal clime, the Commissioner of Police will by now be facing disciplinary action to exit him from the force while the Imo State governor should by now tender public apology to the citizens of the state and tender resignation but the other way round is the situation as the governor is busy running his mouth that the attack is the handwork of aggrieved politicians.
“The question is what the governor did with the intelligence report placed before him by the Depart of State Services a week, 72 hours and 24 hours before the attack? The Imo State governor, as the Chief Security Officer of Imo State, failed to take necessary steps to forestall loss of lives and property and this is, to say the least, reckless and shameful. It shows a man who is unprepared to govern.
“What happened in Imo is humiliation of the country’s security apparatus. It should never repeat itself again. Those responsible for this public humiliation should bury their heads in shame.”
National President of the International Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights Initiative ( IS4- PAHRI), Comrade Osmond Ugwu, however blamed lack of courage and political will on the part of the governors for the rising insecurity in the zone. “Until such disposition is adopted and proactive measures adopted, the situation will continue to escalate. The insecurity we have today is not that of burglary, not even armed robbery so to say. It is more of attacks on communities, rapes,
We were here when we started hearing about killings and kidnappings here and there. We felt that the various governments in the zone were serious about tackling the issue. Unfortunately, after several meetings and promises, nothing came out of it till now. Before their very eyes, their people were being killed and they did nothing.