By Chekwube Nzomiwu
Last October, I wrote an opinion article on the “Seismic insecurity in Anambra State,” after the deadly attack on the Supersports crew at Iseke, a border town of Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State to Orlu in Imo State. That article drew attention to the growing spate of gunmen’s attacks on hapless citizens, including security personnel and wanton destruction of police formations in different parts of Anambra, as well as widespread cult-related killings in Awka, the state capital, and adjoining communities. I thought the article would serve as a wake-up call for the authorities in the state to know that “there is fire on the mountain,” but time has proved me wrong.
Less than a week after that article published in some national dailies, cultists struck at Nibo, in Awka South Local Government Area, during a traditional festival in the community, killing no fewer than 12 persons and inflicting various degrees of injuries on many others. About six days after the Nibo attack, another devastating shooting incident occurred within the state capital at Ifite Awka, leaving four persons dead and others wounded. The Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the incident, the same way he confirmed the Nibo incident.
November 19, 2024, was a black Monday at Abatete community, in Idemili North LGA, and Ukpo, in Njikoka LGA, as gunmen enforcing the sit-at-home, launched simultaneous attacks on the two communities. At Abatete, three vigilante operatives attached to the president-general of the community were gunned down while a vigilante member and a commercial motorcyclist (okada operator) were shot dead at Ukpo. The gunmen shouted “No Biafra, No Freedom” as they fired indiscriminately from AK-47 rifles.
In the third week of December, some unidentified gunmen shot dead a lecturer at the Business Department of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Dr. Fabian Osita, near the High-Tension area of Aroma Junction, Awka. The lecturer was on his way home from work when he was killed. This January, the Nnewi Catholic Diocese buried a priest, Tobias Okonkwo, who was shot dead on December 25, 2024, while leaving the premises of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Medical Laboratory Sciences, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Ihiala, Anambra State.
The abducted retired Archbishop of Nnewi Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Most. Rev. Godwin Okpala, and his driver, were lucky to regain freedom after spending 27 days in the den of their abductors. Okpala told a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, who visited him after his release, that the kidnappers threated them like thrash.
Justice Azuka, a member of the Anambra State House of Assembly representing Onitsha North 1 Constituency, kidnapped on the eve of Christmas, has not been seen as of the time of writing this article. Recall that in 2022 a member of the House, Okechukwu Okoye, went missing in a similar way. His head was later found severed from his body somewhere at Nnewi South LGA in the state. A former House of Assembly member was also beheaded in a similar manner in the same area about the same time. The incidents mentioned here were the ones reported in the media. Many more had gone unreported.
However, it is important to point out at this juncture that insecurity in Anambra State predated the administration of Professor Chukwuma Soludo. Other governors before Soludo were confronted by insecurity but they all tackled it head-on, using different methods.
When Chinwoke Mbadinuju (now deceased) came into office on May 29, 1999, he adopted unconventional methods to tackle insecurity by introducing the Bakassi Boys who were notorious for extra-judicial killings, often butchering suspects with machetes. And of course, Bakassi and its cruel method came with its own challenges, and later became a weapon for witch-hunting political opponents of the government.
When Dr. Chris Ngige mounted the saddle on May 29, 2003, he did something remarkable by calling the bad boys and giving them the option to either leave the state or repent from their old ways, and become useful to the society. Ngige introduced a bill before the House of Assembly for the establishment of Anambra Vigilante Services (AVS). Many of the bad boys became foundation operatives of that vigilante services and were paid N30,000 monthly at that time. If you compare the exchange rate at that time and now, you will have an idea of the value of money that these people were paid to secure Anambra at that time.
Of course, you know that a dog does not eat a bone hung around its neck.During the Ngige era, Anambra that was a hotbed for bank robbery, did not witness any incident of bank robbery. Of course you know the circumstances in which he left office. His tenure was truncated by the election tribunal.
When the person who took over from Ngige, Peter Obi, came, he did not continue with the structures that his predecessor put on ground and the state again relapsed into insecurity. But Obi still rose to the occasion and fought insecurity head-on. Obi came at the time that kidnapping was spilling over to the South East from the South South region. Kidnapping initially started in the South South where the militants kidnapped expatriates working for oil companies.
Then-President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua initiated the Amnesty Programme and most of the militants embraced it, jettisoning their old ways. Gradually, the entire thing spilled over to the South East. So, Obi met the kind of insecurity that was multifaceted, including armed robbery, kidnapping and the emerging agitation for Biafra. Then it was the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) that held sway. Remember that it was during the Obi era that MASSOB and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) fought a ferocious battle of supremacy over the control of motor parks in Anambra State.
Obi confronted all these things frontally, using the Nigerian security forces. During the Obi era, mansions built by notorious kidnappers in Anambra were destroyed. When Obi handed over to Obiano, insecurity reared its ugly head up again. Obiano dedicated everything to it. He adequately funded the Nigerian security forces and the vigilante and they combated insecurity. By the time Obiano was about leaving, this issue of unknown gunmen came up and it got to its peak in Anambra during the governorship election of 2021, which produced Professor Soludo as Governor on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Since Soludo assumed office in 2022, Anambra has been a theatre of bloodletting, comparable to Haiti. This is quite baffling because Anambra State is one of the easiest states to secure, being the second smallest state in Nigeria, with a land mass of 4,844 square kilometres. In fact, any serious long distance runner can cover the entire state in one day.
Anambra is only bigger than Lagos State, which is the smallest state in Nigeria, with a land mass of 3,577 square kilometres. If Governor Babjide Sanwo Olu could take advantage of the small size of Lagos and its enormous resources to secure Lagos State, while can’t Governor Soludo replicate same in Anambra, using the enormous resources of the State. Recently the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) listed Anambra State among the five states in the country that can survive without federal allocation. The others are Lagos, Ogun, Rivers and Cross River.
Since Soludo became Governor in March 2022, he has been collecting about one billion Naira monthly as security votes. He is constitutionally the Chief Security Officer of the State. All the security apparatuses of the Nigerian State, including the military and police are available for him to deploy to tackle insecurity, so also the vigilante services. He has no excuse.
He took oath of office to strive to preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, contained in Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). Under this chapter of the Constitution, Section 14 (2) (b) clearly states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”
Yes, it is said that security is everybody’s business. Unfortunately, Soludo makes it a “one-man” business, by disregarding everybody, including traditional rulers, such as the Obi of Onitsha, His Majesty Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, other political office holders, clerics and elder statesmen.
On assumption of office, Soludo admitted that insecurity was his greatest challenge. One thought he would make it his priority but he did not. But now that he appears to have woken up with the introduction of operation Udo Ga Achi (let peace reign), as an Anambra indigene, I hope and pray fervently that this should be the end. I sincerely do not wish that there will be a part 3 of this article; that is if the people concerned are reading it.
Thankfully, the State House of Assembly has passed a law, establishing the Agunechemba security outfit, designed to complement the existing security agencies in tackling insecurity. One thing, however, is to pass a law, while another thing is implementing it faithfully. We hope that Soludo will not disregard this law, the same way he flagrantly disregarded the law governing the local government system in Nigeria as contained in Section 7 of the Constitution, and even went ahead to enact a law in the state, contravening the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the apex court in the country, which granted financial autonomy to the 774 local government areas in Nigeria.
In conclusion, we hope that the security law passed by the House of Assembly will be faithfully implemented in order to bring about sustainable change security-wise in Anambra State. Let it not just simply be an instrument for the “optics” as usual.
•Nzomiwu, Ph.D, MNIPR is an indigene of Ozubulu in Ekwusigo LGA, Anambra State. Reactions are welcome via [email protected]