Enugu: Security Agencies Collapse Into One To End IPOB’s Sit-At-Home

The Enugu State police commissioner, CP Ahmed Ammani, Saturday, announced the streamlining of all security agencies in the state to effect the end of the sit-at-home order in the state.

Gov Peter Mbah had last week cancelled the order, which was instituted by the Indigenous People of Biafra to press the release of its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who is being detained at the custody of the Department of State Services in Abuja.

CP Ammani, who spoke on behalf of other security agencies in the state, commended Mbah for declaring an end to the order.

According to him, “We commend Your Excellency for adopting the kinetic and non-kinetic approaches in handling this situation, which we strongly believe is germane and timely in this wise.

“We want to inform stakeholders here present and the good people of Enugu State that, through our collaborative efforts and commitment to ensure that lives and property of our people are secured, even as they go about their lawful businesses on the hitherto illegal sit-at-home days, we have collapsed the individual structures of the security agencies into one single structure.

“We have galvanized the personnel, operational and intelligence resources of the agencies, and deployed them towards ensuring adequate security and safety of the people.

“We have mapped out and will continue to ensure the maximum deployment of the personnel and resources to strategic locations within Enugu metropolis and beyond, while also ensuring intense visibility patrols of our nooks and crannies.

“This is in addition to the Air Force deploying aircraft to carry out air surveillance and reconnaissance.”

He urged the residents not to panic ‘due to the massive land and aerial deployments that will be observed on the hitherto illegal sit-at-home days and beyond, as all of this is aimed at building the right confidence in them as they go out and to ensure that those who may want to test our collective resolve to reverse this ugly trend are decisively dealt with’.

He called on stakeholders and the entire citizens of the state to support the initiative with credible information and the intelligence to tackle the situation headlong. He also urged ‘young ones, who may have in time past allowed themselves to be used by those hell-bent on disrupting the peace and causing havoc on the lives and property of their brothers and sisters in the state, to turn a new leaf’.

Recall that on 6th January 2023, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) reported that the entire Southeast Region had lost a total of N5.375 trillion to the sit-at-home order, with Enugu State alone, losing N9.33 billion.

The meeting was attended by traditional rulers, trade unions, religious leaders, traders, heads of ministries and parastatals, drivers and school owners, among others, in the state.