By Jude Atupulazi
Last Tuesday, it was near mayhem at the Main Market, Onitsha when traders went berserk following the shooting of some of them by members of an outfit of the Anambra State Government, Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra, otherwise known as OCHA Brigade.
According to accounts by the traders, four people were shot dead, but the account by the police had it that seven were shot of which one person, a woman, was killed. The incident happened when the OCHA Brigade people were on an enforcement drive at the market.
A later announcement by the Anambra State Government said those involved had been arrested.
Nevertheless, people are asking why in the first place the incident should have happened and how come the OCHA Brigade members carried arms. This latest incident comes after another government agency known as SASA or Ndi Aka Odo, had been condemned for their brutal actions which involve battering people with pestles which they always carry.
Members of ASWAMA, another state government agency, have also been involved in the harassment and brutalization of people. One man who was beaten black and blue by them eventually gave up the ghost earlier this year after spending close to a year at the Orthopedic Hospital in Enugu. His spinal cord was broken during a revenue drive by ASWAMA members. The man in question was a journalist and former Deputy Chairman of Onitsha Chamber of Commerce.
There was also the case of one man called Mgbirimgba whose legs were smashed with pestles by the Aka Odo thugs. He is still at the Orthopedic Hospital in Enugu. But in all of this, the Governor of the state, Chukwuma Soludo, has stuck to his guns, refusing to either disband these groups or stop them from carrying those deadly weapons. In fact, if anything, they are still boldly going about, flaunting their weapons. The fear of Aka Odo Boys in Onitsha has become the beginning of wisdom, indeed.
And then, what about the ongoing war between Gov Soludo and Senator Uche Ekwunife? Both are now fighting dirty after Soludo had first claimed that Ekwunife had a fake doctoral certificate. Iyom, as Ekwunife is fondly called, fired back, asking Soludo to leave her alone as she was not contesting against him for the Governorship but was merely a running mate to someone.
She then described Soludo as the dirtiest Governor in the country whose mouth and armpits smelled. The social media has since been going crazy with their exchanges as many from both camps continue to trade punches.
In all of this, what is happening now could have been avoided had the right things been done. On the uniformed touts in Onitsha masquerading as government agents, Soludo would have kept things tidy if he had stopped them from carrying weapons and harassing people. He should have left the police to do their job. Today, it is alleged that these groups operate private cells where they keep people and extort money from them.
On the spat between Soludo and Iyom, many feel it is what Soludo needed to start behaving like the professor he is. He is too garrulous for many people’s liking and would have avoided this spat if he had kept quiet without always attacking opponents.
I find his garrulity most worrisome as it is only in Anambra in the entire Southeast that you see a Governor talking like a woman. All this would not have come up if he had been acting with more decorum befitting of a professor and a Governor. Some may not like this but then, it is just the plain truth. He talks too much.
