Time to Stop Insecurity in Imo
Imo State is gradually drifting into a precipice and if nothing urgent happens, it may finally get out of hand, writes Amby Uneze
It is no news that almost every part of Nigeria has become a theatre of war. This is very alarming, as everybody feels the harsh impact. From the North-east to the South-east; the North-west to the South-west; and from the North-central to the South-south, everywhere is charged with insecurity. Imo state, the Eastern Heartland is not left out in the criminal activities that had engulfed the country.
In recent times, Imo has turned to be another centre of violent crimes. It is no longer a once-in-a-while thing, but has become a daily affair. There are crises everywhere, every time. Hence, something immediate needs to be done to douse or arrest the situation.
With this scenario, it does appear that Imo citizens and her neighbours are losing hope in government for protection. Unarguably, the main duty of government is the provision of adequate security and when the people feel unsafe in a country or state that is supposed to provide that constitutional obligation for them, they become helpless and are prone to attack by hoodlums or bandits.
Slowly, the society descends to an unfortunate level of self help, as the leadership becomes lame and incapacitated to function as government. Nigeria and indeed Imo state are gradually advancing towards that level of hopelessness. God forbid this situation.
The spate of attacks on police headquarters and some other police stations in the state and the National Correctional Centre, Owerri the penultimate week leaves a sorry taste in the mouth of everyone. However, the Owerri attack could have been avoided if all things were in place. A one-time director of the department of security services (DSS) had accused the authorities of getting the alert of the impending incident. It was so unfortunate that those who needed to do something to perhaps avert the attack could not do their job well.
The reaction of the Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma after the attack when he accused members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as being responsible for the attack was condemned. Pundits faulted the Governor for his hasty accusation on IPOB because he had no proof of that claim.
Another twist of the accusation by the governor was contained in his Thursday’s Channel Television interview where he retracted his earlier claim of accusation on IPOB. This time he laid the accusation on politicians of sponsoring the attack in the state to discredit his government. “It is not about IPOB. Yes, we agree, we have aggrieved IPOB members. But I can tell you; those who are doing these destruction, most of them were brought from outside Imo state.
“They (politicians) try to identify grievances of people in a particular area. They hire hoodlums from outside Imo state. They bring them in pretending to be IPOB and they commit this crime and they go away”, Uzodimma said.
In the same vein, the State Commissioner for
Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba in a statement accused the former governor of the state, Senator Rochas Okorocha of masterminding the attack, a claim Okorocha swiftly denied of having anything to do with the attack.
Again, in a more confused manner, the State government also urged Security operatives in the state to expedite their investigation into the recent attack on Police and Nigerian Correctional Services facilities by hoodlums to ensure the perpetrators are fished out and made to face justice.
Government mandated the Security agencies to beam their searchlight on all possible suspects and avoid the temptation of focusing in only one direction to ensure that the brains behind the mayhem are fished out and prosecuted accordingly.
Emelumba said: “Council directed the security agents to expedite their investigation and make sure that no stone is left upturned and to beam their searchlight in all possible suspected areas and not concentrate on only one area and ensure that those who perpetrated this dastardly act are fished out and brought to book as quickly as possible.
While awaiting the security agencies to parade suspects of the attack, two weeks after the mayhem, no suspect has been identified yet, which poses a great danger to the society. However, at the last count, about 86 prisoners have returned to the Correctional centre, out of about 1844 prisoners that escaped during the jailbreak.
As if the attack on Police headquarters and Correctional Centre were not enough, gunmen again within the same period attacked the Mbieri Divisional Police headquarters in Mbaitoli local government area of Imo state
freeing detainees and burning vehicles. After the Monday attack in Owerri, the Ehime Mbano Police station was also attacked and detainees were freed as well. Before this period, the Aboh Mbaise Police Divisional Headquarters and the Obowo Police Station had had their own series of woes in the hands of the gunmen.
When THISDAY visited the Mbieri Divisional police station two burnt vehicles were seen while the detainees were no longer there. It was learnt that the fleeing gunmen struck around 1am and immediately released the suspects in custody in the police facility. The gunmen also took away the phones belonging to suspects and the police operatives at the Division.
But a police source at Division said the gunmen were repelled by the policemen on duty. “We resisted them but they overpowered us. They had more sophisticated weapons. They took all the phones they saw, released the suspects when they gained access and vandalised the police building”. The source confided in our correspondent that the attackers kidnapped one police officer and injured two other cops.
Only last week, the governors of the five south east region converged in Imo Government House, Owerri under the auspices of the South East Governors’ Forum where they reached the conclusion to set up a regional security outfit known as “Ebube Agu”.
Joined by chiefs of all armed bearing security agencies in the zone with a high - powered delegation from the office of the Acting Inspector General comprising a deputy Inspector General of Police and an Assistant Inspector General of Police, the Governors resolved to bring their resources and arsenal together to fight terrorism and flush out criminals in the zone.
Part of the resolution, it was revealed, is that the security agencies agreed to share intelligence and information concerning the zone and in a manner that will help check crimes.
According to the governors a committee made up of security personnel, government officials and relevant stakeholders will be set up to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the South East joint security platform called Ebube Agu with headquarters in Enugu.
“The meeting approved that the acting IGP and other security chiefs do invite the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and CAN to find out the reason for increasing insecurity of the South East,” and that the “meeting agreed that military policing in the South East should be adequately funded and become effective”.
However, in his reaction over the setting up of the regional security outfit, a lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor noted that setting up such a security outfit with security agents who are not from the zone s commanders could be counter-productive. “It’s impossible to secure the Southeast without its participation”.
He said, “In other words, Eastern Nigerians shouldn’t be the ones internally securing Western Nigeria or Northern Nigeria and vice versa. When you do that, it becomes counterintuitive to security and begins to look like an occupation, a conquest or worse. And it might bread popular resistance, overtly or covertly”.
Just as the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo rightly pointed out in his reaction to the attack on Police and Custodial facilities in Owerri, Monday morning noted that Nigeria would rejig its security architecture for desired result; we need not to wait for a moment to do that. According to him “We will rejig the security architecture of the country and strengthen security at correctional centres nationwide”.
“Perpetrators of this act will definitely be brought to book. They must not go scot-free. They are cowards and will be discovered and duly prosecuted. The vice president however urged security agencies not to relent in the fight against banditry irrespective of the challenges involved”, he said.
As it is the usual palance with Nigerian leaders, they would say one thing and in practice do another. For a very long time, Nigerians have been clamouring for the restructuring of the country as well as re-strategizing the security design of the country but the government kept mute over this strong agitation for a better Nigeria.
It is pertinent to capture the denial of IPOB of not being involved in the Owerri attack. IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emma Powerful, said the attacks were not carried out by operatives of ESN. “The attention of IPOB has been drawn again to the fallacious and fabricated news that IPOB and ESN are involved in the attack of prison and police headquarters in Owerri Imo State.
When THISDAY visited the Mbieri Divisional police station two burnt vehicles were seen while the detainees were no longer there. It was learnt that the fleeing gunmen struck around 1am and immediately released the suspects in custody in the police facility. The gunmen also took away the phones belonging to suspects and the police operatives at the Division. But a police source at the Division said the gunmen were repelled by the policemen on duty. “We resisted them but they overpowered us. They had more sophisticated weapons. They took all the phones they saw, released the suspects when they gained access and vandalised the police building”. The source confided in our correspondent that the attackers kidnapped one police officer and injured two other cop
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