Security agencies in Anambra State have reportedly busted nine camps belonging to ‘unknown gunmen’ in the Anambra South Senatorial District.
Nine shrines used by the hoodlums for oath-taking were also raided by the joint task force on security in the state.
A police source said natives who acted as informants to the hoodlums were also in detention and making useful statements.
Some of the areas raided by the task force included Aguluezechukwu in Aguata Local Government Area; Ebenato community in Nnewi South LGA; Ezinifite community also in Nnewi South LGA; and Ichi, in Ekwusigo LGA.
Other areas include part of Osumoghu, Lilu and some parts of Ukpor in Nnewi South and Ihiala LGAs.
The source said most native doctors had fled from their homes because some of their colleagues who were arrested had been providing names of those involved in killings and kidnappings in the state.
The Anambra Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, said it was too early to begin to count the successes in the war against terror in the state.
Also, the Anambra Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo has announced that security operatives in the state have received a boost with Anambra indigenes in Lagos, Abuja and elsewhere contributing to secure lives and property.
Governor Soludo disclosed this at Amichi in Nnewi South Local Government Area as a guest during the second session of the fifth synod at St Peter’s Anglican Church.
He said that the state’s Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) which was formerly abandoned had been repaired and made functional to add to other sophisticated weapons in the hands of security operatives in Anambra.
He said that the State had made a remarkable achievement in security management and would continue to maintain the tempo despite the odds. He reassured the Anambra people that his government would soon win the war against insecurity in the State.
“God did not make a mistake to make me an Anambra man. Despite my being widely travelled, God has given me a job in Anambra State. Together we will get over insecurity and we are picking them one by one.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the hoodlums are not from Anambra State. They joined their criminal activities with idolatry. They make idolatry their whole religion, ” the Governor said.
He told the audience that during a raid of one of the criminal hideouts at Aguluezechukwu, the security operatives discovered financial records of the hoodlums with a comprehensive accounting system.
Soludo said the State’s forests must be free, regretting that investors had been going to Asaba, Delta State to invest other than Anambra.
He promised the Bishop, Diocese of Amichi, Rt Revd Ephraim Ikeakor that his government would partner with the church to make progress.
The Bishop told Governor Soludo that the Diocese had executed several projects with some others still ongoing and solicited the help of the state government.
The Bishop explained that in addition to arrays of projects including the School of Nursing Science, School of Midwifery, a befitting chapel for the Seminary School in the Diocese, an ultramodern and state-of-the-art modular eye theatre had been set up in the Diocese.
He said it was set up, sponsored, and donated to the Diocese by the SECHUWARIIS Development Foundation in the Diocesan Hospital.
The bishop said that the equipment and donation of the eye theatre was as a result of the discovery made by SECHUWARIIS during a mega medical outreach they sponsored between August and September 2021.
He explained that out of 1,816 patients attended to at the medical outreach, 975 had eye-related problems.
On the State of the nation, Bishop Ikeakor said before now people were shouting that things were falling apart. He noted that every right thing person living in this country knew there was a country called Nigeria.
“When I remember and want to discuss our nation, Nigeria, though unwillingly most of the time, the first thing that flashes on my mind are these three books written by late Prof Chinua Achebe. The books are The Arrow of God; Things Fall Apart and There Was a Country.
“A candid advice to the leadership of this country is to sincerely sit down and ask themselves whether they are truly sincere and unbiased in struggling to keep Nigeria as one nation.
“What are the causes of agitations from different groups in Nigeria? What are the causes of exceptional growth in crime, youth restiveness, brain drain among professionals and general retrogression in all sectors of our national life?
“Is the Nigerian constitution fair to all, true to all, and just for all Nigerians, “the Bishop queried.
He noted that the nation’s corporate existence was under threat. He declared that round table and sincere dialogue was no more disputable and optional.
He was of the view that aggressive critical restructuring of Nigeria with practical devolution of power from the centre to allow for true and functional federalism, which is the answer.
The Bishop insisted that regional and State policing had become totally essential and imperative.
Archbishop Alexander Ibezim; Archbishop Anikwenwa; Archbishop Christian Efobi; Archbishop G.I.N.Okpala; Archbishop Samuel Chukwuka and scores of other Bishops from and outside Anambra State graced the event.
