Since the siege laid on Awka by Cultists which has led to the deaths of an estimated 40 people this year alone, there has been this belief that Awka People know what is wrong in their place, amid suspicions that the killings are tied with the deadly struggle for supremacy at parks and markets by people who pull the strings from behind, using cultists as fall guys.
Once when some villages in Awka invited a non-conventional but effective security outfit known as Bakassi Boys, it was said that some influential men in Awka caused them to leave the town despite their short stay yielding the desired fruit of peace in the capital city.
Their ouster led to renewed killings for which the police could do nothing other than issuing press statements in the aftermath of every killing while the citizenry remained hapless.
It was therefore much welcome news, when Awka stakeholders, along with some powerful citizens in the state attended a security summit convened by a son of Awka and the Labour Party House of Assembly representing Awka South 1 Constituency, Hon Henry Nigeria Mbachu, to find ways of ending insecurity in Awka.
What looked like a riot act was put out at the summit, one of them being that the Ọzọ Title Holders’ Society in Awka said they had already ruled that any of their members who engaged in cultism directly or indirectly, including by ways of sponsorship or acting as witness to secure bail condition for a cultist, would be de-titled, banned and excommunicated forever.
This decision is a very important one as it is believed that certain powerful individuals suspected to be sponsoring the bad elements through who they make money from parks and markets, are in the habit of effecting the release of the boys whenever they are arrested. This has a way of frustrating the efforts of some public spirited individuals to fight insecurity, while those released often come after those that caused their arrest.
It is equally believed that these men sponsor the many kidnap incidents in town. Such men, though without any visible means of livelihood, live big and spend the day doing nothing except lazing about.
Earlier, at the summit, the convener, Hon Mbachu, explained that the summit was aimed at brainstorming on insecurity troubling the capital city, with a view to proffering lasting solutions to it.
Mbachu, who recalled that Awka used to be accommodating, a lover and respecter of humanity, wondered how things degenerated to the present situation where some people lusted for the blood of their fellow humans.
The anomaly, according to him, had forced many families into becoming childless, fatherless, motherless, widows and widowers, because the perpetrators killed without having mercy on anyone.
‘This is not political but a plan to rejig the security in my constituency, Awka South 1, comprising Awka and Okpuno. I have met with several stakeholders and mobilised them to join us in speaking with one voice so that we can make this place secure and better to live by all. Whatever we reach as a decision today, will be taken to the executive for action,’ he noted.
It is hoped that the decisions reached at the summit will really be followed up to ensure that the entire exercise will not go the way of similar ones. If the capital city of Anambra is not safe and convenient for people, business opportunities will dwindle and will inevitably lead to more criminality.
We salute the courage and initiative of the convener and the participants and urge then to walk their talk so that Awka Capital City will be the kind of livable city the state government dreams of.
