As the country battles to get to grips with the high rate of criminality, many states are beginning to make their own security arrangements to safeguard their citizens. Anambra State is part of this. But what seems a worrying trend is the influx of some foreign elements into the state, mostly from the northern part of the country where the menace of Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram has since sacked many communities, including the Middle Belt.
In Anambra State, there seems to be this silent but steady infiltration of suspicious northern youths into our townships and villages. They are usually into the Keke (tricycle) and okada (motorcycle) businesses.
Some of them claim to have been displaced from their homes in the north, owing to the activities of terrorist groups. But still, many of these people are of the dangerous Fulani stock. There are many others posing as ”iron condemn” or scrap dealers but whose activities have been known to involve criminality.
Together with their okada and Keke counterparts, they are slowly becoming part of our city and rural life, and dangerously so, necessitating that we gird our loins against any untoward development that may arise from their influx into our communities and cities. This arises from their propensity to cause mischief.
While, of course, they’re free, as Nigerians, to stay in any part of the country they so desire, they are however bound to engage in lawful ventures that will not portray them in bad light and endanger the lives of their host communities. It is known that many of these people have been caught for various crimes, such as kidnapping and robbery.
This has prompted many communities in the state to now insist that every stranger in such communities should register with appropriate authorities for ease of identification. This is a welcome development.
Indeed, government, for their part, should also work with transport unions in the cities to emplace security measures to checkmate crime by commercial transport operators, especially, foreigners, whose mission in the state may not be easily ascertained. This may not sound too good to some people but the exigencies of the moment demand that these measures be taken.
While this is no attempt at ethnic profiling, the fact today in the country however remains that terrorism is real and there are people mostly associated with that. When more of such people keep pouring into your zone amid warnings by some people, common sense dictates that measures should be taken to safeguard the home front.
While doing this we should also keep an eye on Ebonyi People, many of who are proving to be just as dangerous as the Fulanis but we should be careful on this, to avert its own repercussions too, so that no one is seen as embarking on a witch-hunt.
I therefore suggest that the saner population of Ebonyi people in Anambra State should first address the issue by calling their young men and talking to them on the need to be gainfully employed in legal pursuits away from their home.
It is not deniable that at the moment in Anambra, for instance, more danger is posed to security by elements from Ebonyi than by Fulanis and that is worrisome. They are usually found among the ranks of violent Biafra agitators, while also engaging in vandalization of electric cables, robbery and kidnapping.
This has led to a few communities kicking against having them in their midst. But this is extreme as there are still many very good people from Ebonyi that are as decent as the best citizens from elsewhere. It therefore behooves such decent folks to talk to those of their brothers smearing their names.
As we push for this to be done in Anambra, we also, in the same vein, call for other states where Anambra citizens are constituting security breaches to take action against the culprits. Society has no room for any deviants. Anyone who finds themselves in foreign lands must be law abiding and be good ambassadors of their home states.
It is not a matter of sentiments. People who leave their states of origin for other states must go there to earn legitimate living; not to constitute terror to their host population. This should be very clear.
