By CHRIS NJOKU, OWERRI
The spate of kidnappings and killings on the Port Harcourt-Owerri road, boundary axis between Rivers and Imo States, shows that the problem of banditry in the area is increasing daily and at a frightening rate, our investigation can reveal.
According to the investigation, no day passes without a report of kidnapping and killing along the route, a situation that now sends jitters down the spines of both residents and travelers.
The villagers in Elele, Awara, Mgbirichi, Umuakwunae, and Umuapo, en route Port Harcourt now live in perpetual fear of being attacked by the deadly armed criminals led by a notorious leader called “Ungrateful”.
Some of the villagers interviewed said that they’ve been live in fear and sleeping with one eye closed because of the activities of the hoodlums and constant attacks on the people plying the road.
“There are a lot of killings and kidnappings here,” they said.
It was gathered that since the beginning of the year, over 20 kidnap cases have been recorded along these routes with more than 10 people killed by the bandits operating in the area.
It was learnt that the hoodlums operate with impunity as they appear to be more on ground than the security agencies keeping surveillance at the numerous checkpoints along the routes.
It was learnt that the activities of the armed criminals are results of the collaborative efforts between some youth from Rivers and the indigenes in these villages in Imo State.
Often times, according to investigation, the heavily armed gangsters attack their victims on the highway. Their tactics is to wave down the unsuspecting travelers, particularly at a point where the road is deplorable.
It was gathered that the road, which was awarded to Arab Contractors by the Federal Government, has been in bad shape over the years and these hoodlums use the state of the road to perpetrate their crimes as one or two of the gangsters would stand at a checkpoint to stop the oncoming vehicle at these bad spots; as they engage the driver in discussions, others laying ambush in a nearby forest would attack.
Narrating his encounter with the hoodlums, a victim, who simply gave his name as Andy, described the incidents as akin to the atrocities committed in Somalia by gunmen.
“That place is another Somalia. The aberration there is something else. About three months ago, I was coming back from Port Harcourt to Owerri, some people stopped me with guns and asked me to come down. But when I noticed that they were criminals, I fired my car without minding what would happen next. Since then I have not used the road again,” he said.
He appealed to the government to do something urgent to help people travelling along the routes.
“There was a case of a woman who came to drop her son at a nearby school in the area, she was abducted by the hoodlums, but when they saw that the police was pursuing them, they dumped the woman and fled,” a villager said.
Another villager, Oguchi Opara, advocated good education as a solution to the problem of the restive youths. She said such a step would change their character and give hope to those of them involved in the crime because most of them are illiterates.
It was learnt that many of the youth involved in these crimes were those who claimed to have surrendered their arms during the Federal Government amnesty programme.
According to a security source, most of them did not surrender their arms, adding that after the election, most of them fell back on those arms for their survival, even though it was learnt that the Presidential Amnesty Programme had empowered 2,187 already trained beneficiaries in small and medium scale business enterprises. The beneficiaries are spread across Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Edo, Cross River, Abia and Imo states.
Investigation revealed that despite this goodies from the government, the situation remains unabated and overwhelming to security agencies.
An ex-security personnel, who preferred not to be mentioned, blamed lack of effective monitoring of the situation on the illegal activities of some soldiers and policemen “doing illegal activities on the road.”
However, the security agencies expressed worry over the activities of their men as they claimed they have channels to discipline such erring officers, adding that their operation was being hampered by the people in the area, who had refused to provide information about the activities of the gangsters for fear of being killed.
Apart from this, the police said they had arrested 14 suspects in the past one week following their strategic surveillance of the area.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Orlando Ikokwu, said that 14 suspects had been arrested in the past one week through close watch mounted by the force’s operatives.
He said that the gang had been operating from the forest and usually retired to the community, but accused the people in the community of not volunteering information owing to fears of being killed by the criminals after the police must have gone away.
Ikokwu said, “We have deployed patrol teams in the areas. We have arrested about 14 people in the past one week. The people in the community fear they would be killed by the criminals if they give information.
“The people are even afraid of the police, but we have our own surveillance teams in the communities and their efforts are yielding good results. We are on ground.”
Also, the Army Public Relations Officer, 34 Artillery Brigade, Obinze, Lieutenant Iliyasu Bawa Rijau, told our correspondent that there were military checkpoints along Elele Road to counter any threat posed by the criminals, adding that the problem was lack of cooperation from the people.
“Of course, as you can see, we have military checkpoints along the Elele road, but the issue we are having is the people, they don’t give us synergy. All we want is reliable information. Most times, their information come 30 minutes after the criminals had carried out their operation,” he said.
On the illegal activities of some soldiers, he said such a report should go to the superior officer on duty.
“There is proper channel of communication. They have to report such soldiers to the officer attached to the team,” he said.
