Assembly Adopts Motion To Tackle Insecurity In Community

The Enugu State House of Assembly has adopted a motion on the state of insecurity in Ette community in Igboeze North local government.

In a seven-poing prayer in Enugu, the Assembly unanimously urged the GOC 82 Division of the Nigerian Army and the Enugu State Commissioner of Police to urgently draft a combined team of military and mobile police men to restore peace and order in the area.

They urged Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, as the chief security officer of the state, to take every security measures to forestall further restiveness and curb the insecurity in the area.

The lawmakers also urged the Commissioner of  Police to make a special case to the inspector general of police to upgrade the Ette police post to a border police station while the Igboeze North local government chairman was mandated to provide a temporary police post pending the construction of a new one.

They equally prayed the commissioner of police to bring to book the hoodlums perpetrating the dastardly acts to avoid breeding of another “Boko Haram sect” in the peaceful state of Enugu.

They directed the Assembly Committee on Security to set up a special ad-hoc committee to follow up the action.

Earlier while presenting the motion, the sponsor, Mr Anthony Ogidi (PDP-Igboeze North), said that due to persistent unrest by hoodlums in the area, a unit of mobile policemen from Mopol 3, Enugu, was drafted to keep the peace.

He lamented that immediately the policemen were withdrawn in October 2010, the hoodlums started the destruction of properties belong to the state government and public office holders.

Ogidi listed some of the properties destroyed to include the magistrate court and the development center secretariat in 2010.

The lawmaker said the people also destroyed vehicles and molested and de-robed three traditional rulers returning from Enugu after paying Chime a courtesy visit.

Others are the vandalism and destruction of homes and vehicles belonging to the former supervisor for health, former administrator, councillors, traditional rulers and property and petrol station belonging to a legislator.

According to him, the hoodlums stopped the contractor rehabilitating the Nsukka-Ette road neglected by successive administrations and vandalised the contractor’s equipment.

Ogidi said the latest was the closure of two secondary schools, all the primary schools and cottage hospital in the community on February 24.

“The community has approximately 40,000 inhabitants with five autonomous communities, three council wards and speaks Idoma, Igala and Igbo languages,’’ Ogidi said.

Our correspondent gathered that some of the members of the community were agitating for movement from Enugu State to Kogi for alleged marginalisation and neglect.