Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has reaffirmed government’s unwavering commitment to addressing insecurity assuring that efforts are underway to guarantee a peaceful Yuletide celebration for the people of the state.
Governor Otti who stated this at the monthly Media Parley with Journalists hosted by the state government at the Government House, Umuahia, emphasized the state government’s commitment to eradicating all types of criminal activities in Abia and added that no government can thrive in an atmosphere of insecurity.
The Governor further emphasized that the state government would not tolerate or support any form of insecurity, noted that security intelligence has revealed that ransoms for kidnapped victims are often left near the Umuchieze Cattle Market in the Lokpanta axis of Umunneochi Local Government Area.
He said; “We installed electronic equipment to find out what is happening in every part of the state. A few weeks ago, we found that a lot of the ransome that was paid for kidnapping ended up somewhere around Umunneochi LGA.
“We decided to dominate the place and what we saw was shocking. In less than 48 hours, we recovered over 80 dead bodies around the cattle market, and we recovered 20 headless bodies decomposing bodies which include adults and children.
“We recovered uncountable skeletons of people who had been killed and left to decompose still around that axis,” he said.
Governor Otti further disclosed that various criminal activities, including gun running, prostitution, narcotics trade, and substance abuse, have been prevalent in the cattle market and added that investigations are ongoing to identify those involved in the crimes.
The Governor pointed out that in response to these issues, the state government decided to transform the cattle market into a general market that would be open to the public.
He said that his administration took measures to secure the market by fencing it and have mandated that it operates as a non-residential daily market, open from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Otti added that as part of the transformation, the market will no longer exclusively cater to the sale of cattle; but instead would become a general market where a variety of items can be bought and sold.
“Now some persons said that we had sent away the Hausa community living in Abia, but remember when we say the skeletons, we did not know which skeletons belonged to either Hausa or Yoruba.
‘The spread of the false information led to a northern group issuing a quit notice to Igbos living in the North to leave and come back to the East.
“After a meeting with the group and explaining to them what we were trying to achieve, we challenged them that anybody who is not in support of what we are doing must be a criminal, then they saw reason with us and reversed themselves,” he added.
Otti said that the state government was desirous to maintain peace and stability to encourage the people of Abia to move about in the state, especially during the Yuletide without fear and assured that Umunneochi LGA is safe.
He restated the government’s commitment to rebuild the state and give it a new look through massive industrial reforms and infrastructural development.
