ABUJA—Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State is set to relocate to Aba any moment from now to  prove to residents of Aba that their lives and property were now well secured more than ever before.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja, the Special Adviser to the governor on Media, Mr. Ben Onyechere, said the unfriendly situation in Abia State, which had hitherto made attraction of investments an uphill task, had now normalized.

Onyechere, who was the National Publicity Secretary of Progressive Peoples Party, PPA, said the people of Abia State and Aba, in particular, could now be rest assured that the government had stood up to the challenges of insecurity by taking measures in collaboration with the federal government, which will permanently stabilize free flow of commerce in Aba.

He said: “As a result of the security situation in Aba due to the activities of kidnappers, the governor had assured Abians of his capability to stop kidnapping, but in his fatherly and amiable disposition, had given them opportunity to embrace the amnesty program which they failed to do.

The governor could not have sat down indefinitely when lives and property were jeopardized by politically motivated gorilla warfare orchestrated by the selfishness of a few people who do not wish Abia well.

“This had  projected contradicting opinions on the decadent security situation. It is noteworthy that Aba which was once peaceful, has been under siege of armed banditry until this recent measure was put in place to permanently put a stop to the menace.  This security measure will now pave way for another amnesty program for minor offenders who may attribute their behaviour to lack of jobs.”

According to the governor, though unemployment is not peculiar to Abia alone, the government has devised measures to curb the scourge, some of which are the  amnesty programme, provision of special subvention to local governments to enable them mop up the population of  unemployed youths in their localities, a package of loan as incentive to small and middle scale industries and provision of loans to traders who desire such facilities with the aim to boost commerce in Abia.

He said it could now be acknowledged  that since the state was now secured with the presence of Joint Task Force, it was ripe to re-engineer commerce and industry with the creation of job opportunities as the expected output in shortest possible time.

He said:  “With regard to road infrastructure, the federal government has now as well accepted the responsibility of maintaining federal roads in Abia State for which contract has been awarded for immediate construction work to begin, to complement the effort of Abia state government.  With the stability of security, the governor has ordered  contractors handling  road works in Abia to return to site with immediate effect or have such contract revoked before the end of next week.