The Abia State Government has denied reports that it ordered Northerners who live and conduct business in the Lokpanta Cattle Market, which is located along the Enugu-Umuahia-Aba-Port Harcourt Motorway via Umunneochi, to leave the state.
The State government stated in a statement made accessible to journalists that the bogus news included no truth.
The statement claims that “those Northerners are the second and third generations of Igbos” who live in Lokpanta.
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The Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Navy Commander Macdonald Ubah (rtd), made this clarification while briefing journalists at the government house in Umuahia on Monday. He noted that the Lokpanta-Uturu axis of the State had been under siege by criminal elements in recent years, prompting the State government to take major steps to eliminate the spate of kidnappings and other criminal activities in the area.
According to him, preliminary investigations indicate to the Lokpanta Cattle market as a key hideout for all types of people involved in various criminal operations, such as kidnappings, organ harvesting, armed robbery, and other violent crimes.
According to the retired Naval Commander, ransom for kidnap victims in the Uturu-Umunneochi axis was allegedly paid in the market, prompting the State government to, among other things, carry out deliberate actions such as demolition of brothels and shanties in the market.
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Ubah, who branded Governor Alex Otti as a detribalised Nigerian for appointing non-Abians to his cabinet, pointed out that the majority of cattle merchants in the state are second and third generation Igbos, and hence the Governor Otti-led administration could not have issued such an order.
He stated that the government’s position is that the market would no longer be residential, but rather a daily market.
The Special Adviser on Security to the Governor of Abia reiterated that the government’s decision to establish the Lokpanta Cattle Market a daily market is in the best interests of citizens and cattle dealers, and that the decision will not be reversed.
He also told the media that he had two meetings with the heads of the cattle market unions, during which he informed them of the government’s decision to make the market daily for security concerns.
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