How We Routed Kidnappers, Enugu Council Boss

The Chairman of Igboeze South Local Government Area of Enugu Sttae, Mr Ferdinand Ukwueze, Monday, attributed the drastic reduction in kidnap cases as well as obnoxious cultural practices in the area to the collaborative efforts of the state and the people of the area.

Ukwueze, who spoke in Enugu, said before the routing of the scourges, the people of the area were not “sleeping with their two eyes closed”, adding however that the matter had become a thing of the past.

According to him, “Insecurity is a global challenge, and every local government area has their security peculiarities. In our LGA, we were confronted by unknown gunmen and some elements who were implementing sit-at-home at a time. They were using some forests as camps. We share borders with Kogi State, and within Enugu State, we have borders with Nsukka, Igboeze North and Uzo-Uwani. The governor, in tackling the problems, invited all the council chairmen and charged them to convert all the forests prone to criminal hideouts to farm estates with the state bearing the 60 percent cost.”

He said the state government’s Command and Control Room, a security framework that aerially monitors insecurity in the state, helped to track the locations of the criminals.

According to him, “Enugu State government intentionally invested in the Command and Control Centre. The centre makes the geography of Igboeze South and other LGAs visible to security operatives. There is a synergy between all LGAs and the state in general. We also have collaborations with our counterpart LGAs in Kogi State. So it is one thing to commit a crime, and another to go free in Igboeze South LGA. We must fish the perpetrators out. Time was when kidnappers were coming from outside Igboeze to waylay our people into the forests. Recall when some reverend fathers and reverend sisters were kidnapped in Igboeze South! They were rescued, but we don’t want a repeat.”

On some harmful cultural practices in the area, such as violent masquerades attacking passersby, Mr Ukwueze said, “Masquerades were victimising even non-natives on our soil in the name of culture. We re-organised the practice in tandem with the dictates of civilisation. Some of the perpetrators were not even from Igboeze South. With the collaboration of our traditional rulers and other security stakeholders, we were able to arrest the matter.”

Ukwueze, who doubles as the Vice Chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria in the state, also stated that no local government in the state has a reason not to deliver democracy dividends to their people “because we have access to resources”.
Quoting him, “LG chairmen ought to be performing well to fulfil their mandates to the people because we have our monthly allocations, in addition to our internally generated revenue to operate with. Therefore no chairman can underperform. The worst LGA in Enugu State is the best in other states. The state promises us 60 percent counterpart funding for capital projects inasmuch as they are people-oriented.”