By Sunny A. David
FORMER Chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Council and House of Representatives candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Ogbaru Federal Constituency in 2023, Sir. Arinzechukwu Awogu has raised alarm over incessant killings plaguing Ogwu-Aniocha community in Anambra State.
As a result of the worrisome situation the former Council boss visited the newly posted Director of State Security (DSS), in the State, Mr. Sanusi Abubakar to solicit for his assistance in curbing the menace.
He said that the inhabitants of the Community have been forced out of their homes due to the crisis thereby becoming refugees in neighbouring communities.
Said he, “the children of Ogwu-Aniocha Community have been out of school for over two years with its attendant consequences of setting the Community back educationally.
“The people of Ogwu-Aniocha are not only homeless but are scattered in strange lands while desolation is gradually consuming the entire Community.
“Basic needs such as roads, electricity, healthcare and so on are now secondary as the people have to be alive first to be able to seek and to enjoy basic needs which portray government’s presence which the Community are grossly lacking anyway.
“Ogwu-Aniocha”, he went on, “has become one big killing field, the unreported killings going on in Ogwu-Aniocha at the moment will shock the world when eventually heads are counted.
“Dead bodies litter the Community and many more are seen floating on the Ulasi river. At this level of our human advancement, we mustn’t watch in akimbo and allow the Community wallow in self-destruction”.
He maintained that Government should step in to save the Community by setting up of Commission of Inquiry to unravel the protracted crisis and recalled the abduction and disappearance of Igwe Oliver Chike Nnaji, the traditional ruler of Ogwu-Aniocha.
Awogu further stated that “The DSS intelligence report has a way of awakening the consciousness of the government to a potential danger as the Ogwu-Aniocha situation is a real potential danger as it could become Anambra’s version of Sambisa forest where criminal elements control and from where terror is exported and unleashed on the wider society”.
Responding, the new DSS boss, Mr. Abubakar assured the former Council boss that he would take up the matter.
Meanwhile, the people of Ogwu-Aniocha have said that what they seek is government’s attention and presence which will not only give hope but restore confidence in the people but lamented that Government’s only interest in their Community is the oil.
“Instead of calling for meeting on how to restore the Community, government is busy holding meeting after meeting on crude oil in the same Community majority fled for fear of their lives”, lamented a concerned Ogwu-Aniocha indigene.
Photo caption:
Late Igwe Oliver Chike Nnaji, the Traditional Ruler of Ogwu-Aniocha
