By Tony Edike

ENUGU – CONGRESS for Progressive Change, CPC, in Enugu State, yesterday, raised alarm over what it called dangerous dimension insecurity had taken in Enugu State, saying this could derail next month’s elections in the state.

The alarm is coming just a day after the State Security Service, SSS, in Enugu raided an illegal arms manufacturing factory where it recovered over 100 dangerous weapons and arrested four suspects at Agbada village, Nenwe in Aninri Local Government Area of the state.

Governorship candidate of CPC, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, who raised the alarm at a news briefing in Enugu, said the insecurity problem in the state had reached an alarming proportion and had the capacity to endanger the polls if drastic action was not taken urgently.

He recalled that penultimate week, there was a bomb plot raised by the State Commissioner of Police minutes after Governor Sullivan Chime’s declaration at Okpara Square.

He also recalled that bomb was unearthed at Four Corner-Udi road as well as yesterday’s State Security Service, SSS, discovery of arms manufacturing factory at Agbada Village in Nenwe Aninri Local Government Area.
In the midst of this sordid scenario, Okechukwu said the state government had accused some elements in the state of terrorism, thereby “raising the threshold of insecurity and returning us to the dark days before 2003 and 2007 general elections.”

He said: “We are alarmed because the war drums have reached feverish pitch and as democrats, we depend exclusively on the state for protection.”

According to Okechukwu, who is also the National Publicity Secretary of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, “ the people of Enugu State should be allowed to freely make their choice to elect who represents them at the state or National Assembly and who becomes their governor or president.
“This inalienable right of the people is gradually being eroded as fear is being instilled in the people by the warlords.”

He called on security agencies, especially the SSS, to expose and stop those he regarded as the warlords, saying the agencies owed the nation the obligation.

“The arms factories are not patronized by ghosts, but warlords and the easiest way to contain threats which could disrupt the polls is full disclosure,” he said.

Applauding the SSS for raiding the arms factory and arresting the suspects, Okechukwu urged security agencies in the state to be more vigilant and make public the result of their investigations before April polls.
“Somebody may ask has anybody been killed for us to raise this alarm?  But we don’t want to wait for somebody to be killed before raising this alarm,” he stated.