Agitations In Southeast Now Criminal Enterprise — Soludo

Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has said that political agitations in the Southeast have turned into a criminal enterprise in which the perpetrators have taken the zone hostage and disrupted the economic life of the people.

Speaking on Wednesday in Lagos during an event by the Anambra State Security Trust Fund, the governor said his administration would do everything possible to take the state back from the hoodlums and return it to the people of the state.

He said that the agitators constituted themselves into a quasi-government, set up roadblocks, collected taxes, tolls and levies from the people and terrorized the people of the state.

He added that kidnapping for ransom, murder, idolatry, and other forms of criminality became a criminal enterprise with those involved making huge sums of money at the expense of the people of the state.

He told the gathering, who were “who is who” from Anambra State residents in Lagos, that it is the responsibility of the government and people of the state to rescue it from the non-state actors who wanted to overwhelm the people.

Soludo stated that it was imperative that the people take the state from the hoodlums and make their homeland livable and prosperous, adding, “Your hosts will not respect you if you do not have a prosperous and livable home.”

He stated that it was in the bid to curb insecurity and other challenges that the state set up the Anambra State Security Trust Fund and called on individuals, corporate entities and organizations to contribute to the fund.

The governor outlined strategies the state has put in place to reverse the situation and called on the people to donate to the fund, adding that the state could not do it alone.

According to Soludo, the budget of the state is less than two per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the state, meaning that over 98 per cent of the resources in the state are in private hands.

He also outlined strategies to resolve challenges in the education, health, power, infrastructure and other sectors in the state.

Also speaking at the event, Air Vice Marshall Chiobi (Retd), special adviser to the governor on security, said that the state has adopted a technology-driven strategy to curb insecurity, adding that the state needs equipment like armoured personnel carriers, computers, vehicles and others to curb crime and reduce insecurity.