….demands return of functional police station in region ….accuses INEC of truncating people’s will
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Group of Igbo elders under the umbrella of Igbo Patriotic Forum (IPF) have raised concerns over increasing lawlessness and anarchy in the south east, attributing it to gradual disappearance of police in towns, cities and villages of southeast states.
The Igbo elders told journalists at a press conference in Abuja, on Wednesday, that non-state actors are freely unleashing terror on the people of the region due to the absence of state actors like Police that supposed to protect the lives and property of the people.
Chairman of the IPF, Chief Simon Okeke, who addressed newsmen, disclosed that almost all the Divisional Police Offices in the region have closed with their personnel collapsed into the existing Area Offices in the South east.
He said: “There are no more uniform police officers or road checks anywhere in all the towns, cities and villages of the entire South past region. This has left the people vulnerable and at the mercy of the unknown gunmen even with toy guns.
“Hitherto, there are no functional police stations all over the five states of the zone. We must know that a city, town or state without a functional and equipped Police is an invitation to anarchy and lawlessness.
“We wish to use this occasion to make a passionate appeal to Mr. President to give all the necessary budgetary and logistic support to the Inspector General of Police and his team towards re-opening up as soon as possible, all the police stations in the south east region currently closed down for over three years now. This has led increased insecurity in that zone leading to people obeying senseless sit-at-home out of sheer fear.”
Meanwhile, the Igbo elders have called for calm from aggrieved Nigerians over the outcome of the recently conducted presidential and national assembly elections which, they said, was marred with alleged fraud and irregularities.
They said: “Reports from various parts of the country indicate that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed woefully to live up to expectations despite repeated assurances of its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and other officers that the Commission was ready to conduct free, fair, and credible elections in the country without any hitches whatsoever.
“The whole essence of 2022 Electoral Act was to electronically transmit the result of votes obtained from the polling units direct to the INEC central server by use of BVAS to avoid manipulations which were rampant in previous elections. At the end, same machine failed to work at the critical time it was supposed to work.
“Unfortunately, we now have to wait for the courts to determine the actual winner of the election. Nevertheless, we urge Nigerians to remain calm and law abiding as this process goes ahead.
“In spite of the alleged monumental fraud, we should not lose hope since we are on the road to seek justice in the Courts. We pray that God will give our judiciary the courage to uphold justice and truth in deciding this case.
“We wish to call upon our people once again, to come out on Saturday March 11th and exercise their legitimate right to vote the candidates of their choice at the forthcoming gubernatorial and state houses of assembly elections.”