By Harris-Okon Emmanuel

Some communities in Etim Ekpo, Ika and Ukanafun Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom are living in fear. No day passes without news of killing and violent crimes in the communities. Cultists and kidnappers are oftentimes on the prowl, killing, looting property and abducting residents, causing many to flee to Uyo, the state capital, and neighbouring local government areas for safety.

•Some of the suspects arrested in connection with the attacks

Akwa Ibom is christened the Land of Promise and it is also known for its peaceful and serene ambient, but the activities of cultists and blackguards have conspired to puncture that peaceful nature and deface the beautiful epitaph.

The state Commissioner of Police, Adeyemi Samuel Ogunjemilusi, was barely one week on his seat in Akwa Ibom when cultists killed four persons and, according to reports, what really irked the new CP was the fact that one of the victims was killed in the presence of his parents, and, in the other killings, nothing was taken from the victims.

The Commissioner of Police, who toured the flashpoint communities, was apparently disturbed by the level of drug abuse, ‘’senseless” killings by cultists and violent crimes.

The visit took him to Etim Ekpo, Ika and Ukanafun, where he met with youths resident there and brainstormed on how to end the violent crimes.

In Ukanafun, a sister and two cousins of the immediate past Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, Udo Ekpeyong, were recently killed in cold blood. The court of justice in the town has since been relocated to Abak because of the killing of a lawyer by cultists. Hon. (Obong) Okon J. Uwah, a former Deputy Speaker of Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, was reportedly killed by miscreants on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 during a visit to his brother-in-law in Nkek village in the local government area. There are more casualties as the lingering insecurity seemed to have defied solution.

A lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recounted why he had not visited his village in the past one year. He is among the thousands of people across the three local government areas that have been upended by the rising wave of cult activities and cross border crimes in the areas.

Another youth, who simply identified himself as Abasiodu, blamed politicians for their predicament as they are the ones who ‘’groomed the cultists for election purposes and now they have turned against them and it is affecting everybody”.

A prominent member of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the local government area, Mr. Emmanson Udo Akpan, from Ikot Akpa Nkuk, last year, sent an SOS letter to the Inspector General of Police, urging him to intervene in the “on-going spate of killings in the local government area and restore peace and allay the fears of the people”. Everybody in the state is worried by the prevailing insecurity in the area.

Ukanafun, according to the locals, used to be a place where people go to enjoy themselves, but that has since changed as it has become a no-go area.

Residents want the police to approve vigilante groups for them to work alongside security agencies for effective neighbourhood monitoring and policing.

Vice Chairman, Ukanafun Council, Hon. Umakiso Victor, lamented that the fragile security situation had dealt a big blow to ‘’our collective psyche as a people,” revealing that the area was always tensed, especially on the market days, as hoodlums were always laying ambush for traders to cart away their goods and money and vowed that the Council would do everything to restore sanity, soliciting police/community partnership to checkmate the ugly trend.

‘’People don’t sleep in their houses. They sleep in churches and yet they still go there to kill them. The masterminds are natives and, sometimes, they bring in mercenaries from other places. We are living in fear. A lawyer was killed by cult boys and lawyers vowed not to come here and the court moved to Abak and, because of that, many people have been denied justice. We find it difficult to say that we are from Ukanafun”, he said.

The scenario is the same in Etim Ekpo, a neighbouring council area. Etim Ekpo has produced prominent citizens including a former Deputy Inspector General of Police, Prince Udom Ekpoudom, who sources said is very worried about the situation.

The Council Chairman, Hon. Udeme W. Eduo, explained that without the efforts of the police, the December 2, 2017 council polls would not have been feasible.

The Council boss pledged to work with security agencies to ensure that ‘’repentant cultists and hoodlums have something to do” and appealed to the police to help his administration to fight insurgency and maintain peace.

He said he called a meeting of the clan heads and suggested the formation of a vigilante group for those who had passed through para-military military training as the people were ready to work with the police and also share information for effective crime fighting.

Ika council is also caught in the web of violent crimes and cultism. The CP, who addressed the youths of the LGA, gave them the opportunity to air their views.

The Chairman, Youth Caucus, Ika Chapter, Uduakobong Thomas Ekereke, thanked the CP for the meeting which he described it as the first of its kind in the history of policing in the state, noting that ‘’cultism is a Nigerian phenomenon which has affected every nook of cranny”.

He stated that Ika was a vulnerable area surrounded by hostile neighbours, noting that most of the crisis in the area was related to boundary issue and farmland, as, according to him, unresolved boundary issues have exposed residents to violent and untimely deaths and called on government to step in and settle the issues once and for all for.

The youths of the area, he explained, must be major partners if cultism was to be stamped out completely and blamed the police for ‘’unfriendly attitudes”, especially in the area of information sharing, adding that ‘’the police must understand the peculiarity of the community they are protecting to be successful”. Other youths spoke in the same vein.

The Commissioner of Police’s message was clear throughout the visits. He warned that he would not tolerate lawlessness in whatever form and stressed the need for the police to be proactive if ‘’we are to save the state from the perennial violence”, adding that the perpetrators of the heinous crimes were not spirits but live ‘’in our midst and we should not wait until our relations are victims before we run to the police”.

Ogunjemilusi called for collaboration and information sharing between the LGAs’ youths and the police.

‘’If investors are not coming to your domain, your poverty will prolong. You don’t have to be a member of a cult group before people know that you are important”, he advised.

“You must purge your ranks of criminal elements, expose them before they come after you and destroy your future.

‘’Let change begin with you. If you are conscious of who you are, this state will be open to development, investors would come in. If we love life, why are we taking the lives of others? We need to know the bad ones and we will appeal to them to change and if they refuse to change, we will put them where they belong”.

The CP also had a word of advice for his lieutenants, urging them to stick to their code of conduct and be civic to members of the public while respecting their human rights, adding that ‘’we must be proactive and reactive and you don’t have to be partisan, resort to blackmailing and carry rumour of what you don’t know”.

The Commissioner of Police disclosed that he would rejuvenate the police crime fighting mechanism to restore peace and security.

“We will bring violent crimes and criminality to an end. My men are determined to do everything within our professional calling to reduce the problem so that people can go about their businesses without fear or let”, he said.

Meanwhile, in an effort to restore peace, the state Police Command has set up Operations Putsch to tackle violent crimes, especially in Etim Ekpo and Ukanafun, with the arrest of about 56 suspected cultists, kidnappers and armed robbers in tow in the last three weeks, while a cult kingpin was last week killed gun duel with security operatives

Also, to ensure a lasting peace and security, the Command organized a youth summit where stakeholders brainstormed on the way to end cultism and violent crimes in the flash point areas of the state.