Concerted efforts are urgently required from all stakeholders in the South-East to stop the disconcerting security challenges in the region from gliding inexorably into full-blown terrorism. Every genuine grievance should be properly channelled through the appropriate quarters instead of the recent resort to violence and armed confrontation by some agitators. There is also the need for the Federal Government to be attentive to the loud expressions of discontent over its exclusionary disposition to governance in the country.
Daily reports of sporadic attacks on police and state infrastructure and personnel across the region and neighbouring states are disturbing. An investigation by this newspaper estimated that more than 127 police officers and other security personnel were killed, and 25 police stations attacked in the South-East and South-South in the past five months.
From Imo to Ebonyi, Abia to Anambra and Enugu, it is disheartening that police stations have come under sustained attacks, with the attendant loss of lives and property. Apart from the attacks on the Imo State Police Command Headquarters and Owerri Correctional Centre, where over 1,800 inmates were freed in the early hours of Easter Monday, the number of divisional police headquarters razed in the state has increased byfive in the last one week.
That is not a good tale to tell. On Monday, the Amandugba Divisional Police Headquarters in the Isu Local Government Area of Imo State was burnt by gunmen. Reports said that on arrival, the attackers threw inflammable substances at the police facility, setting it on fire. The attackers also razed the magistrate’s and high courts in the area and later vandalised the community health centre.
Earlier, on the night of May 29, the Atta Divisional Police Headquarters in Njaba LGA was razed. The same fate befell the divisional police HQs in Orji in Owerri North LGA days later.
In neighbouring Abia State, hoodlums reportedly attacked and burnt the Bende Divisional Police Station days after the ApumiriUbakala Police Station in Umuahia South LGA was destroyed last month. Two police officers were reportedly killed in the earlier attack. That incident brought to seven the number of police stations burnt in that state in the last three months. Sadly, no arrest has been made by the police.
In Enugu, on May 25, gunmen attacked the Iwollo Police Division in Ezeagu LGA, leading to the death of five officers. An eyewitness said the hoodlums “succeeded in completely razing down the buildings in the divisional station.”
Earlier on April 20, gunmen attacked the Adani Divisional Police Station in Uzo-Uwani LGA of the state. Predictably, the police were overwhelmed and could not offer any significant fightback against the early morning attackers; they reportedly suffered the loss of two officers. It all points to failure of intelligence-gathering and proactive policing.
The Zone 13 Police HQs in Ukpo, Dunukofia LGA of Anambra State was not spared either. That was an audacious attack at the very soul of policing in the South-East that should worry all. A worried British Deputy High Commissioner, Peter Thomas, expressed a similar sentiment during a visit to the region recently.
This unfortunately appears to be a rehash of the method adopted by the Boko Haram insurgents in their early days in the North-East: Sustained attacks on security and state facilities until the coast was clear for an all-out attack on the citizens.
Indeed, restoring peace and security to the South-East is an existential imperative that should be all embracing, involving the religious, traditional, and political leaders, as well as other opinion moulders and youth organisations in the region.
The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, George Obiozor, was right in observing that the “devil has visited the South-East” in recent months. The lamentation, however, is not enough.
A lot more is expected of the leaders of the South-East to rise to the urgency and provide a stabilising and soothing platform for the peaceful resolution of the security challenge buffeting the region. Religious leaders who are known to wield considerable influence in the South-East should be seen and heard preaching and advocating peace.
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The wide implications of allowing terrorism to gain a foothold in the South-East are too dire for the social and economic development of the region. It is more disturbing that regular exchanges of gunfire between the so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ and security operatives in the region have resulted in the loss of innocent lives hit by ‘stray bullets.’
Prominent individuals and groups at home and in the Diaspora should weigh in to quickly bring an end to this dangerous development. The formation of the Ebube Agu regional security network is still mired in a maze of bureaucratic bottlenecks. With the police completely incapacitated, criminals, kidnappers and all manner of deviants and outlaws will have an unrestrained access to wreak havoc on defenceless citizens.
The regime of the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) should douse the rising tension in the region. It should provide an alternative to violent agitations by addressing the root causes of separatism now, and by deploying intelligent and proactive policing as well as backing local security initiatives.
Source: Punch
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