, in Umunneochi Local Government Area of the state, has once again brought to the fore, the precarious security situation in that region.
Traveling on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway that passed through the area, has since become a nightmare. There were instances where vehicles plying the highway were ambushed and the entire occupants were abducted by bandits and marched inside the bush in broad daylight. They even accused the security operatives in some of the checkpoints of complicity, and being soft on the perpetrators.
However, there are concerns that certain forces do not seem to be comfortable with the current efforts of the Government against insecurity in the state. What is, however, not clear, is the identity and interest of these forces. They demanded that the Government should build a housing estate for them if it insisted on evicting residents from the market.As the quagmire lingered, the Governor’s revelation of a valley of decomposing bodies and skeletons, seemed to have stirred the waters. The Northern Community sharply disagreed with the Governor, challenging him to show pictorial or video evidence of the decomposing bodies.
“We also discovered that gun running, prostitution and so many things were happening in the market. So, we realised that the first thing to be done is to secure the market. We went in and brought down many brothels, and we felt that the market, just like any other market, should be a day market that starts in the morning and closes in the evening.”
“We have started fencing the market even though it will cost a lot of fortunes. We also want to make it a general market not just for cattle alone. There will be sections for provisions, foodstuffs, electronics and others. They distanced the Northern community from atrocities by criminals around the market, claiming that Northerners were not “accomplices but also victims” of criminalities in the area. They said they had assisted in identifying and destroying hideous of criminals in the vicinity.
The written position of the Northern community was jointly signed by the Chairman of the Cattle market, Alhaji Saleh Algare; Secretary General, Auwal Hamma; Sarki Hausa, HRH Alhaji Yaro Danladi, Buba Kedemure, among others. Therefore, some pertinent questions begging for answer include: Why is the Northern community opposed to fencing the market? How correct are they to claim that Government’s directive for residents to vacate the cattle market amounts to pursuing Northerners out of the state? How safe and conventional is it for traders to live inside market? Should the revelation by the Governor who is the Chief Security Officer of the state become an issue for...
The Northern community which claimed that they were about 15,000, demanded a housing estate in the vicinity to accommodate them. They equally demanded the siting of banks in the cattle market to prevent movement of cash which exposes them to attacks by criminals.
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