Abia is disaster area...Says Assembly, wants Yar’adua’s intervention
Stories from GAMBO KANNO FUBARA, Umuahia
Abia state House of Assembly has called on President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to declare Abia state a security disaster area, just as the President was also asked to urgently take steps to ensure immediate and complete overhaul of the security apparatus in the state.
In its resolution, following a matter of urgent public importance, the house also urged the Inspector- General of Police and the Director General of the State Security Service (SSS) to redeploy the present leadership of both the police and the SSS in the state.
The house, which declared the two security bodies incapable of contending with the alarming insecurity in the state, further appealed to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, to temporarily relocate to Abia state with a view to finding answer to the increasing cases of kidnapping and other criminal activities with their attendant heavy human and material casualties by the police and other residents of the state.
Presenting the resolution, the Speaker, Chief Agwu U. Agwu, sympathized with the families of police officers who have lost their lives in the current war against kidnappers in Abia state and called on the Inspector-General of Police to post officers of Abia origin to take over the leadership of the Abia state police command.
He also called on the President to extend the amnesty offered militants in the Niger Delta region to the kidnappers in order to lift their siege on the state and invited the Chief Security Adviser to the governor to brief the house on the security situation in the state.
Chief Agwu thereafter declared a three day fasting and prayer session for members of the house of assembly over the high rate of kidnapping incidents across the state.
Earlier, members of the house had joined the representative of Aba Central Constituency, Chief Uzo Azubuike, to recount the dastardly activities of kidnappers who leave indelible traumatic experience on their victims and even the police.
The members regretted that despite the huge investments of Abia state governor on security and security related maters, the hoodlums seem undeterred in their resolve to unleash terror and mayhem on the people of the state.