Umuahia, once one of the most peaceful and clean towns in Africa, is no more so apparently. There really isn't any need for any redundant "oh Nigeria" comments; sadly, most are thinking of giving up or have already have. . .

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Emmanuel Ugwu

A rash of security beef up has commenced at commercial banks in Umuahia, the capital  of Abia state, following a threat letter allegedly sent by armed robbers asking the banks to prepare to be invaded like it happened in Aba last week.
Similar letter and the subsequent armed robbery attacks on commercial banks operating in Aba caused the banks to close shops since last Wednesday thereby paralysing business activities in the commercial and industrial nerve centre of Abia state.

To avert possible armed robbery attacks, banks in Umuahia have beefed up security around their premises, even to the discomfort of their customers, who are subjected to serious security scrutiny before being allowed into the bank halls to access banking services.
In some banks, customers were not allowed to drive into the premises leaving a long queue of vehicles along the streets where such banks are located and also in the adjoining streets.

As expected, bank customers are already agonising over the extra checks they were made to undergo in order to transact businesses in their banks but opinions were divided as some said they didnít mind so long as it would guarantee security given the experience of banks in Aba.

It would be recalled that when the criminals allegedly wrote some banks in Aba informing them that they were coming for a nefarious visit the threat letters were ignored and the armed robbers eventually invaded the banks to the consternation of the affected banks that lost huge sums of money to the invading hoodlums.

There has also been noticeable influx of security men into Umuahia drawn from formations in other states. One of such detachment from Kaduna is camped at Union Primary School Afara waiting to be mobilised as at press time.
The security situation in Abia appears to have worsened following the set back suffered by the amnesty programme of the state government when the extended deadline expired on Sunday. A combined team of soldiers and policemen was said to have thrown a spanner in the works when they stormed one of the centres where repentant criminals were expected to surrender their arms and register for rehabilitation package by Abia government in collaboration with the federal government.

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http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=175209

Nna bros dey vex damn, nna bia ne confidence o.

Nobody is catching or 'caughting' them. You need to hear the sound of their guns and the confidence they exude: they'd be robbing at a point and about 2 or 3 of them would move to over 500m from the scene, shooting into the air and chatting among themselves, and are they in a hurry to go? A week today over 30 people got hit by stray bullets when they robbed Fidelity Bank at Alaoji Motor Spare Parts Market, so many of them died on the spot (i tell u dis wit evri degree of certitude 'cos I was around there that fateful day, though NTA Aba reported zero casualty).Even a mad man who tried to provide some comic relief by threatening to sue & deal with them was not spared. People are living in fear in Aba (I'm even leaving for Owerri 2moro). Then you need to see the Mobile Policemen jumping into nearby bushes and quickly changing their uniforms, the thieving Bakassi boys will always come when the robbers are long gone. . . .

Not Umuahia!

Then it will be Arochukwu!

Have these people no shame?

It is time for my brethren back home to join vigilante forces and use jungle justice!

The police cannot protect us so it is time to take matters into our own hands.

anarchy arising, its not safe no more, never has been,

EzeUche:

Not Umuahia!

Then it will be Arochukwu!

Have these people no shame?

It is time for my brethren back home to join vigilante forces and use jungle justice!

The police cannot protect us so it is time to take matters into our own hands.

I hope yu too will join. But dont forget to go to una shrine before participating.

The Eastern part of the country has never been a safe place. It is about a culture that places too much emphasis on materialism and very little emphasis on scholarship excellence.

What would you expect from intelligent youngsters whose culture DEMANDS that you are either a millionaire or be dead.

is thi sfor real,my beloved Aba,boys gather around let us deal with this hoodlums,ludirous galoot.

VALIDATOR:

The Eastern part of the country has never been a safe place. It is about a culture that places too much emphasis on materialism and very little emphasis on scholarship excellence.

Don't ever bring tribalism into this thread.

Every part of this country experiences bank robbery, so there is no special sentiment attached to this particular one.

The problem we are having is insecurity and it is a national problem

VALIDATOR:

What would you expect from intelligent youngsters whose culture DEMANDS that you are either a millionaire or be dead.

this doesn't make sense AT ALL,

Theodore Orji has failed.

His Godfather orji has made him to fail.The solution is simple.

Declare a state of emergency in abia.Aba is lawless,umuahia is just ungovernable.Kidnappers everywhere now armed robbers,all the good men have left the state .The state is now in the hands of the eveil men both in and outside the government.

May God save us.

.....

I honestly think it’s all going to get a lot worse in Abia state.

I think so because-as some people have already suggested-this whole thing seems to be political, as opposed to the random criminality of some people. I am inclined to think that some politicians are actually playing ‘chess’ with the fortunes of the state. 

This is my take on the situation: Orji Uzor Kalu’s PPA is in firm control of Abia State and has transformed the state from being a once vibrant commercial city, famed for its International market and innovative people into a derelict haunt of thieves. They have been able to achieve this inglorious feat because they were never really interested in governing, but were more attracted by the potentials for squeezing out the very economic life-blood and soul out of the state in order to amass the wealth and power they now have. Abia, let’s not forget, is also an Oil producing state, so shares some of the largesse that the government out of its benevolence occasionally hands out to the ‘Niger Delta’.

Someone may want to argue at this point that OUK was an ‘international business man’ and all that before he became the governor, but i would respond that that did not deter him from draining the state and turning it into the wreck it presently is.

Currently, Abia state’s politics is shaped by the intra-ethnic rivalry between Southern Abians (Ukwa-Ngwa axis) and their Northern counterparts (Umuahia-Egbere axis),  and also by the struggle of politicians to unseat OUK’s PPA and install a PDP puppet government in the state. If the status quo remains, come 2011 PPA will sweep the state and local government elections and will install another puppet of OUK with a name like Kalu or Orji  in Umuahia. The reason for this is that OUK and his group have so much ‘resources’ available to them that they will rig themselves into power at the next elections without any sweat. This will be irrespective of what the common Abians think. Any serious opponents (at both state and local government levels) are terrorized out of the state. This I know, because one of my politically inclined acquaintances had a bullet shatter one of his legs, not too long ago, prompting him to leave.

So what has the recent spate of kidnapping and robberies got to do with all this?

I suspect that some people want the state to degenerate into such lawlessness that the Federal government will have no other option than to declare a state of emergency in Abia. Under a state of emergency the power equations will change, such that others can more assuredly compete at the next elections.  Without a state of emergency (or any other means by which OUK’s puppets can be neutralised, such as using EFCC), PPA will win again come 2011, whether Abians like it or not!

So what we have here is a very complex situation: some group of politicians may be trying to create chaos in the state in order to unseat the present stooge! I am not saying that it is PDP-sponsored but it is clear that if PPA is neutralised, other parties will have a better chance of winning in 2011. Is this good or bad for Abia? I’d ask those that are being kidnapped but one thing is clear though: the pawns are always the common, impoverished, man who hardly knows what’s actually going on. That’s the way the cookie crumbles in Abia-God’s own (forsaken) state.


As 2011 approaches, this is the kind of power-politics that’s going to become mirrored across most of the states of the federation.

Let them do whatever abeg na wetin? I am very sick of all these nonsense if they like let them not only rob let them explode all the banks in the city. If they failed to bomb all the banks that mean they are all bastards idiots!!!

Why and why? Can't some people sometime think? Is crime the best way to send message to government oe get rich or proof a point? I'm so sick of all these we will do this , we will do that, we will kill, we will kidnap pls go on and your worst ok and you think you are doing anybody but yourselves, rubbish idiots!!!

I wept for Abia, the land of my birth the moment i realised that OUK is an illiterate, visionless, childish in thinking , a tout and had a devil adviser in the person of His Satan mother. No wonder in his days ,every sector of Abia economy recorded minuses and it is not surprising that his successor, an old man of little brain, would do the worse.
Presently Abia is in Boundage held by the kingdom of darkness chaired by OUK'S mother.
It is a sordid state affairs that the government of Abia is manned by the worst people in Abia.
The trend will definitely continue until this PPA led government is unseated.

slap1:

Nobody is catching or 'caughting' them. You need to hear the sound of their guns and the confidence they exude: they'd be robbing at a point and about 2 or 3 of them would move to over 500m from the scene, shooting into the air and chatting among themselves, and are they in a hurry to go? A week today over 30 people got hit by stray bullets when they robbed Fidelity Bank at Alaoji Motor Spare Parts Market, so many of them died on the spot (i tell u dis wit evri degree of certitude 'cos I was around there that fateful day, though NTA Aba reported zero casualty).Even a mad man who tried to provide some comic relief by threatening to sue & deal with them was not spared. People are living in fear in Aba (I'm even leaving for Owerri 2moro). Then you need to see the Mobile Policemen jumping into nearby bushes and quickly changing their uniforms, the thieving Bakassi boys will always come when the robbers are long gone. . . .

It's such a pity Nigerians don't realize the Politicians in Abia are fully responsible for this. . . . .
Whenever there's a series of bank robberies happening at an alarming rate. . . .it's all down to Politics.
They need the money to start off their campaign for the coming elections. . . . .

Are our police not effective

sley4life:

Are our police not effective

The Police are the ones doing the robbery. . . . .

I felt safer in my village then in either Umuahia or Aba.

Remember the elders of my village would tell us who traveled to the West, that no kidnapper dare enter our village or they would be slaughtered!

And the people of my village meant business.

ud4u:

Don't ever bring tribalism into this thread.

Every part of this country experiences bank robbery, so there is no special sentiment attached to this particular one.

The problem we are having is insecurity and it is a national problem

The oil spill in the US a few weeks ago is a US national problem too.But a part of the US is directly more hit than the other parts.
It is no tribalism my brother. I wish u can see it the way i see it.

VALIDATOR:

What would you expect from intelligent youngsters whose culture DEMANDS that you are either a millionaire or be dead.

Passie:


this doesn't make sense AT ALL,

Please ask a sensible person to explain it to you.

These are the signs and symptoms of a malaise stricken country called Nigeria. God help us

VALIDATOR:

The oil spill in the US a few weeks ago is a US national problem too.But a part of the US is directly more hit than the other parts.
It is no tribalism my brother. I wish u can see it the way i see it.

By making unfair allusions to the cultures of a people, I think you are being tribalistic, and nobody has to see "IT" the way you do.

I have witnessed alarming rates of crimes in other parts of the country such as Benin, Port Harcourt and even Lagos. Those had nothing to do with the culture of the people. It was just crime.

d governor is a dummy

Its obvious the PPA led govt in Abia state has failed us.The situation is horrible.yet they want to come for second tenure.Abians we must arise to stop this Kalu hegemony in Abia state.Enough is Enough.

.NET:

By making unfair allusions to the cultures of a people, I think you are being tribalistic, and nobody has to see "IT" the way you do.

I have witnessed alarming rates of crimes in other parts of the country such as Benin, Port Harcourt and even Lagos. Those had nothing to do with the culture of the people. It was just crime.

@.NET,
I get your point.I am sorry if it was interpreted as tribalism.That NOT my intention.
Again,it is not a national problem. Do not be deceived. Crime is everywhere in the country.The rate and magnitude is what makes Eastern Nigeria so unsafe.
Has it ever happened anywhere in Nigeria that all banks in a town close shop for a few days because of fear of robbery.That is a normal thing in the east.
Other parts of the countries have their problems too and like the East are also in denial.They say the same thing. "It's a national problem".

^^ Validator,

I appreciate your unbiased view to the truth. However, for the records, I remember that some months ago, millitants ravaged streets of Yenegoa, Bayelsa State in protest for "unpaid salaries". At least, I was in Bayelsa when these things happened.

During that period, several shops were looted, banks were raided and robbed in broad-daylight.

THE RATIONALE:
I still maintain that crime happens everywhere, it has nothing to do with the culture of the people. This is reason we have Governments to curb the menace of criminals in our cities. The governments are to blame - not the people.

It happens everywhere, brother!

.NET

.NET:

^^ Validator,

I appreciate your unbiased view to the truth. However, for the records, I remember that some months ago, millitants ravaged streets of Yenegoa, Bayelsa State in protest for "unpaid salaries". At least, I was in Bayelsa when these things happened.

During that period, several shops were looted, banks were raided and robbed in broad-daylight.

THE RATIONALE:
I still maintain that crime happens everywhere, it has nothing to do with the culture of the people. This is reason we have Governments to curb the menace of criminals in our cities. The governments are to blame - not the people.

It happens everywhere, brother!

.NET

It's about rate and magnitude.
There are exam malpractices in the US but is the rate and magnitude like in Nigeria? Isn't it about the culture?
There are religious crises everywhere in Nigeria but it definitely has higher rate and magnitude in the North.Isn't it about the culture?

VALIDATOR:

The Eastern part of the country has never been a safe place. It is about a culture that places too much emphasis on materialism and very little emphasis on scholarship excellence.

I said i will not insult anyone on nairaland and be civil.If you think most of those robberies in the East are perpetrated by easterners please change your orientation.I can tell you that these guys come as far as from the north and west.

Na wa oh, the robbers really got some balls, they actually alerting the banks to be ready for them.