…As kidnapping, robbery attacks rage

By Chinenyeh Ozor,  Nsukka

Barely one year after the barbaric Fulani herdsmen attacked  Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani local government area, Enugu state where  over 40 innocent indigenes of the community were assailed to death in the early hours of Apri 25th 2016, the proposed intervention  police station in the area remains a ghost land since its approval by  the former Inspector- General of Police, Solomon Arase.

Crime Guard gathered that the site of the proposed intervention police  station which was attracted by Senator Chuka Utazi, representing Enugu North  in the upper house of the National Assembly, has since its approval,  been cleared and police sign post hoisted at the centre    but nothing further has been done to show presence of the Nigeria  police force at the site.

Nigerian Police

Visit to abandoned site

A visit to the site located at Nkpologwu Camp, Uzo-Uwani LGA  showed that large hectares of land were allotted for the Intervention  police station as approved by the former Inspector- General of Police who equally visited Nimbo community on the  spot assessment of the scene of crime where houses were burnt and many badly injured during the bloody attack that aroused national and international anger, barely one year ago.

Unfortunately, nothing has so far been done to show police presence at the  site  to avert future occurrence of such invasion and other volatile intrusions including criminal acts like; kidnapping, rape of young girls and women atfarmlands, maiming and robbery attacks on commercial and private vehicles  along the lonely Nsukka/ Adani express way etc.

The arable large hectares of farmlands mapped out for the police  intervention station is being occupied by snakes, scorpions and  crickets, as the communities would no longer lay claim to  farm on the land.

The approved police station, when completed, was expected   not only to   save lives but  also  strengthen security in communities of Nkpologwu, Ukpabi Nimbo, Nrobo,  Abbi, Ugbene Ajima, Uvuru, Opanda among others.

Kidnap and death of Security officer

It should be recalled that Ejiofor Enechi,   Security Adviser to  Uzo-Uwani LGA chairman, Cornell Onwubuya, was abducted   along  Opanda and later found dead months after the family had paid ransom  of N2 million.

There were heart rending reports along the lonely  road which could have been averted if the proposed Intervention police  station had commenced operations, structures put in place, officers  and men posted to function as fully fledged police station to complement  efforts of Nsukka and Adani police stations which are several miles  apart.   Presently, all the communities along the ever busy and agriculturally rich area are living at the mercy of God as gory stories of robbery attacks, kidnapping and other criminal activities thrive on the road.

Narrow Escape from Golgota

Recently, a former Chairman of the local government area and one time member of the House of Representatives, Chief Paul Eze, and many other prominent sons of Nkpologu, escaped death by the whiskers after  they were waylaid by dare-devil bandits and kidnappers on the road.   They were reportedly going to Nsukka after attending a town hall meeting when heavily armed men opened fire on them, just few meters from the site of the abandoned police intervention centre.   Their cars were riddled with bullets after they escaped from the scene by driving in a commando-like manner.

Ransom Centre

Before the abduction and killing of the Local government security chjef, so many other reported and unreported cases of kidnapping were recorded on the road which links Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the east.   In most of the cases, victims were made to pay ransom ranging from N100m to N200m and those of them that failed to pay up were killed and dumped in the thick bushes that dot the area.   It was in the same area that kidnappers carved out a popular road leading to Adada Secondary School as Ransom Centre.   Surprisingly, the lonely but deadly axis, well known to security agencies, remains a no-go area while the business of kidnapping thrives daily.

Senator reacts

Contacted for comments on the situation of the proposed Intervention  Police station, Senator Chuka Utazi  lamented in an SMS that efforts he made so far to call the attention of police authorities to the plight of his people seem not to be yielding the urgent result.   According to him: “Former Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase,   promised to build the new divisional police  station as Police Intervention after the unfortunate incident and I havebeen going to   the office of his successor, Ibrahim Idris, to make good the promise by  fulfilling it. I led a delegation of major stakeholders from Uzo-Uwani  LGA resident in Abuja to IGP’s office last week to still  ask  the IGP to take action as this will help to solve problem of  insecurity along Nsukka/ Adani road, ” he noted.