By Anayo Okoli

Umuahia—Disturbed by rising insecurity in his state, Abia, Governor Theodore Orji has lamented that in spite of the efforts by his administration to checkmate crime and criminals, especially, kidnapping, the situation has continued to degenerate and is on the increase.

Orji in a state radio and television broadcast, weekend said  “it saddens me to report to you that all these measures we took have not yielded the desired result as we still hear of cases of kidnapping and other crimes in the state”.

Worried Orji accused those he described as “some unscrupulous elements who are deliberately bent to rubbish my achievements in the past two years” for the continued state of insecurity in the state.

He accused an unnamed group of being the sponsor of the criminal activities in the state, meant  to create a semblance of insecurity “to settle non-existent scores” with his administration.

The Governor admitted that the criminal activities in the state had assumed “pandemic proportions in the past three months despite the concerted efforts” by his government.

He also blamed the rising wave of crime in the state on the influx of criminals dislodged from other Niger-Delta states, who he said had found a safe haven in Abia.