- Is Imo State losing the security plot?
There is cause for worry in Imo State. Two gangster actions in just 36 hours left the beautiful city of Owerri, the state capital, and the heartland state of eastern Nigeria in a trail of blood and sorrow. It is not that tales of killings and gangsterism do not abound in other parts of the country, but the last two reports emanating from Owerri are peculiar.
The first happened last Friday on the premises of the High Court, Imo State. A suspected kidnap kingpin, Henry Chibueze, (also known as Vampire) was being arraigned and as proceedings were about to start, an armed gang suspected to be his members stormed the premises and guns blazing in commando style sprung him.
About six persons were reportedly killed in the episode and an unknown number injured. Among those hospitalised were judges and lawyers who scaled fences in their escape bid. Among the fatal casualties were said to be prisons personnel while soldiers on guard in the area were reported to have fled upon hearing the sound of the marauders’ superior arms.
This manner of armed assault on a court in a capital city in Nigeria is a rarity. This one is particularly troubling considering the seemingly secure location of the court. The High Court, Owerri is behind the Government House, and down the road is the Command House, the abode of the Commandant of 34 Brigade, Obinze. A short walk away is the State Command of the Department of State Services (DSS) as well as the Imo State Police Command.
In other words, the court would be assumed to be located in a highly secure precinct. But how only six gunmen could breach its security and whisk away a suspect in an SUV is a jigsaw security operatives would have to unravel; and quickly too.
But as the report goes, it may well be that security may have been compromised while the suspect was in detention as it is claimed that he was afforded such privileges as using cell phones and meeting female consorts. It was alleged that he was also coordinating the affairs of his gang even from behind the bars.
The other incident happened two days later (Sunday) in Ikenegbu area of the city, not far from the scene of the first incident. It is the abduction and killing of Mr. Ben Onyechere, a former aide of the former governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji.
Mr. Onyechere was reportedly trailed to a supermarket by his assailants at about 8 p.m. by about five gunmen. The hoodlums had ejected his driver from the car and driven away with the victim. The following day, Onyechere’s body was found in the neighbourhood. His driver who was said to have tried to resist was shot in the legs.
This manner of brigandage and wanton killings in a state are unacceptable, to say the least. That armed gangs would operate day and night, kill freely and walk away from the scene unchallenged is ominous. It is suggestive of numerous dark auguries chief among which are a failure of governance and a looming anarchy.
These two dastardly killings are affronts to the chief security officer of the state, which is the governor; and it is symptomatic of serious dereliction of duty by the commissioner of police in the state and all members of the state’s security council. These incidents give the impression that the state is vulnerable and suffers deficient policing.
Further, the report that a seemingly dangerous detainee was accorded privileges, if true, is a marker of the rot in the prison system. The bloody escape of the victim is just one possible dire consequence of such shirking of responsibilities.
