RAYMOND OZOJI reports
Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has once again appealed to the people of Ihiala Local Government Area of the state to assist government in the fight against insecurity by helping to kick out criminal elements from their respective communities so that contractors can come and construct more roads there.
Soludo who made the appeal while responding to concerns from an indigene of Ihiala Local Government Area during the grand reception of late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah's political family into the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Awka, said contractors can not work where they would be kidnapped, maimed or their equipment vandalized by hoodlums harbouring themselves in surrounding bushes.
The governor stated that Okija community has emancipated herself from the captivity and treachery of non-state actors who initially held the community hostage and they are currently beneficiaries of the road revolution across the state.
Soludo stated that they have gone to Osumoghu severally to liberate it from criminals but expressed worry that unfortunately most of the youths in most of the communities in Ihiala particularly Ebonesie and part of Ihiala town have joined the bad boys and became their agents of destructions.
The governor who disclosed that Okija now has one road completed and another road at 75% completion, maintained that Okija people rose up to the situation and chased daredevil gunmen out of their land and today they are enjoying the dividends of democracy and good governance of the present administration.
The governor was worried that Ihiala indigenes won't allow contractors to work in their domain particularly in Ebonesie comprising Mbosi, Isseke, Lilu and some others where the dreaded hoodlums have recruited 90% of the locals and indigenes under oath to work as agents for them.
He said when contractors build roads in the area, they go and damage them at night planting explosives on the roads to destroy unsuspecting vehicles plying the area, stressing that contractors can not work in such endangered places.
According to the governor, Ihiala Local Government is where the state government spends more than 20% of the state security votes. He said proportionately Ihiala should not have more than 5% of the security funds when shared amongst the 21 Local Government Areas of the state.
He said Ihiala alone has military, navy, police, vigilantes and other security agencies working in Osumoghu, Lilu, Uli and other parts of Ihiala to completely liberate it from the grip of non-state actors. That the amount of resources and security personnel deployed to Ihiala Local Government Area to combat crime and criminality is indeed huge.
Governor Soludo who made reference to Ukpor in Nnewi-South Local Government Area, and Ukpor community used to harbour four camps of the notorious unknown gunmen but when government, according to him, went there and chased out the four camps, Ukpor people took over the security of their community and two years ago they had a mass return and nothing even an ant or cockroach dared to trespass.
The governor therefore emphasized that today Ukpor prides herself as one of the safest communities in Anambra State; wondering what is happening in Ihiala Local Government.
He said unless Ihiala people rescue their community like Okija from criminal elements, it would be pretty difficult for contractors to be deployed there for construction works even as he mentioned Umudara-Ndiezike road under construction, construction of Eziama-Uli erosion road completed, construction of Savinovo-Ubahuezike road 95% completed, Savinovo log2 75% completed and a host of other ongoing construction works in and around Ihiala Local Government Area.
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