Maduako Ignokwe I Monday, Oct. 16, 2023
ONITSHA – The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, has expressed worry over the reactive nature of security personnel’s approach to fighting crime in Onitsha and the whole of the state.
He said that the level of crime in his kingdom Onitsha was becoming worrisome. The monarch made the statement on Saturday at the 2023 Onitsha Ofala festival.
According to the monarch, the statutory security agencies that had bases in Onitsha, namely the police, army, navy and the Department of State Security ( DSS) were reactive towards crime. He attributed the high rate of crime in his domain to urbanisation, noting that Onitsha has become the destination for the mostly jobless and transient youths from the rural community in search for an elusive better life.
“Like other large cities in the country,Onitsha had its own share of security challenges during the year and continuing. Being the centrepiece of a massive urban spread of contiguous communities, it is virtually impossible to ring-fence our community from the overall security situation in the urban conundrum.
“Consequently, our main challenges remain youth unemployment, gangsterism, touting, homelessness, petty and armed robbery, cultism, drug addiction, child prostitution, rape,etc.
“Unfortunately,the Indigenous community is not spared of these pressures of urbanisation, and we are constantly struggling to maintain a balance between our traditional life and modernisation.”he said. He stated that the relevance for prevention is, therefore, wholly on our vigilante services in two formations.
“These are the Anambra State Vigilante Group( AVG), numbering 25 persons under the command of the state and the Onicha Ado community vigilante ( OCVU), numbering about 59 persons under the command of Ime Obi Obi Obi Onicha.
” Both groups work collaboratively together and with the statutory agencies, occasionally supported by Onitsha Youths Council, to maintain relative peace in the commune. Our biggest challenge is the inadequacy of funding for salaries, equipment, and consumables which is literally borne by the community, except for the paltry state government contribution of only N10,000 each for ten persons per month only.
” Their minimum salary of N20,000 is below the national minimum wage salary and we have to augment them with benefits in kind. The other major challenge is needed to structurally merge the two vigilante groups under one command for optimum effect.
He said the Ofala Festival had grown steadily in terms of its scopes, social glamour, and intrinsic meaning for Ndi Onicha.
“With the strides that it (Ofala) has made, the Ofala continues to receive both national and international recognition.
Speaking at the occasion, the governor of Anambra State Prof Charles Soludo also expressed worries over the continuous presence of criminal elements in Onitsha.
According to him, the more you arrest them the more they come in a greater number. “We will continue to deal with them no.matter where they are coming from. We must stop touts and criminals in Onitsha and Anambra State” he said .
