Insecurity: Ikpeazu sets up 12-Man Security Monitoring Committee for Umunneochi

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has set up a 12-man security monitoring committee (Special Security Situation Room) for Umunneochi local government area as part of efforts to tighten security in the kidnap-prone area.

Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Barr. Eze Chikamnayo, announced that the Governor has authorized the inauguration of the Special Security Situation Room Committee made up of various stakeholders in a statement he issued in Umuahia on Monday, June 13, 2022.

“In furtherance of his determination to stamp out the menace of Kidnapping and killings by terrorists in and around the Umunneochi LGA, and  to give immediate  effect  to the decisions reached after his wide consultation with stakeholders,  the Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu has authorised the immediate constitution of a Special Security Situation Room for the Area,” Chikamnayo said.

The Commissioner named the members of the 12-man team to include His Royal Majesty   Eze Okechukwu Chukwuji who will serve as the Chairman; the member representing Umunneochi in the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Barr. Okey Philip Igwe; the Commissioner for Information and Strategy , Abia State, Barr Eze Chikamnayo (Secretary); Umunneochi Council Chairman, Chief Ifeanyi Madu, and a former member of Abia State House of Assembly, Prince Ezekwesiri Ikedi and immediate past State Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the party’s House of Assembly candidate for Umunneochi State Constituency, Chief Fabian Nwankwo.

The rest of the members of the security monitoring team are Chief Emeka Madubuike representing Izu Umunneochi Security Think Tank; Comrade Azubuike Adams – Stakeholder (representing Umunneochi Youth Assembly); Mrs  Grace Obiageli  Ibeh (representing Umunneochi Women Groups); HRH Eze Earnest Onwuka (Chairman,  Umunneochi Council of Traditional Rulers); Sarki Hausa (representing the Hausa Community ) and the Commissioner for Homeland Security.

Chikamnayo explained that the Committee would be saddled with the responsibility of liaising with the security agencies and all other necessary institutions to provide succour to Abia citizens resident in Umunneochi and ensure  proper monitoring and implementation of government  directives in that regard.

The Commissioner added that the Committee would be inaugurated on Thursday, June 16, 2022 by the Governor at the Executive Chambers of Government House by noon.

Recall that Umunneochi axis of Abia State has become the hub of kidnapping for ransom, killings and other violent criminal activities by Fulani herdsmen who recently abducted the Prelate of  Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence, Rev. Dr. Samuel Kanu Uche and two others clergymen travelling with him.

The kidnaping of the Prelate sparked of wild protests by Umunneochi youths who protested incessant abductions and killings in their land, saying that their people now lived in fear. They demanded among other things, the relocation of the Lokpanta Regional Cattle Market which they calimed served as hideout  for Fulani herders indulging in kidnapping and dismantling of the Lomara Junction Military checkpoint, accusing military personnel deployed there as providing cover for the Fulani kidnappers.

Ikpeazu, had, after a fact-finding mission to Umunneochi to ascertain, first hand, the security situation in the area and held consultations with various stakeholders, vowed that the Prelate’s kidnap would be the last in the area.