TO walk successfully from Bridge Head, to Upper Iweka, in Onitsha, any time in the night is to achieve a feat. This is especially so if the person is carrying personal belongings or money. Not many are able to achieve that these days, no thanks to the marauding gangs of criminals, both petty and big time, who have rendered the once safe axis very unsafe for everybody.

Two weeks ago, a business man and his apprentice had just got off a vehicle around 10 pm at the Bridge Head area. There were four young men huddled together a little distance from where the business man got down from the bus. Ordinarily, the scenario would not have raised eyebrows as the young men might just have been cooling off and savouring the cool night air. But no sooner than the business man and his boy got down from the bus than the four young men surrounded them with guns.


The incident is just one of many that have become the lot of those residing or doing business in Anambra State’s biggest commercial enclave. Crime has simply overtaken the city, while the police and other security agencies are quiet, either as a result of incapability to deal with the situation, or because of complicity (or both?)?

Apart from this incident, the entire city of Onitsha has been ravaged by crime. From Bridge Head to Okpoko and to Fegge, men of the underworld appear to have overwhelmed the security agencies. This has resulted in the killing of five police men in the city within the past one year. There was even this story of a police man whose gun was snatched from him as he got down to eat.

To use the pedestrian bridges at night is equally dangerous as the bad boys are usually on the prowl. Uche Amunike of Fides Newspaper, Awka, has lost her phone thrice in Onitsha to these hoodlums. The third occasion was in front of her house when two men on a bike pulled up in front of her and her daughter in broad day light and brandished a gun before taking their phones.

There are notorious areas in the Onitsha metropolis. They include Okpoko, Fegge and Obosi. Obosi’s case beats the imagination as this has been a known dangerous area for many years now, yet the police have allowed things to continue to degenerate there. It was in this place that popular presenter with the Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS, and deejay, Magic Fingers, was shot late one evening. He managed to escape with his life and ran straight to the Borromeo Hospital where he was promptly admitted.

And then last Monday, the circulation manager of the Sun Newspapers, Fabian Obi, was murdered in cold blood after a gunman entered his office at Old Market Road and pumped him with bullets thrice before taking his money. The killer atop a waiting tricycle or okada.

The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Southeast Zone, led by Comrade Chris Isiguzo, Vice President, and Ken Ofoma, Secretary, noted thus: ‘We received with shock the news of the killing of a Sun Newspaper agent in Onitsha, Fabian Obi, by unknown gunmen. This is indeed very tragic. For such to happen at a time the military operation code-named “Python Dance 11”, aimed at checking the rising wave of armed robberies, kidnapping and other forms of crimes, is still on, with soldiers virtually in every nook and cranny of the five Southeast states, makes it more troubling.

‘We also want to remind the Anambra State Government that the primary responsibility of a responsible government is the protection of life and property. Abandoning this responsibility, especially at this critical time when the state is preparing for a major election, resulting in the rising wave of insecurity in the state, indeed speaks volumes of the government’s commitment to security of life. Let the needful be done as quickly as possible because a stitch in time saves nine.’

In Awka, the state capital, criminality in the Okpuno area is well documented. One dare not walk the streets at night with personal effects. To do that is to court a slashed arm or a broken head. One recalls that in a session with the immediate past police commissioner in Anambra State on the menace of criminals in these areas, he had taken offence at the question. But this is not an issue to be parried by feigned annoyance. The danger to citizens of the state in these areas is real and needs to be tackled.

Onitsha is central to Anambra’s economy and allowing hoodlums to overrun the place will hurt the state economically. The failure of government and the security agencies to check the spate of crimes in Onitsha may be counter-productive and this is why everything should be done to check the trend.

The Anambra State Government has done well by investing heavily in security.. The police and other agencies should reciprocate by living up to their responsibilities. Anambra may be among the safest states in the country, but Onitsha is turning out to be the unsafest city. And if the crime indices in this city continues to rise unabated, the safest state may not be very safe after all.

Mr. Atupulazi Jude, editor of Fides Newspaper, wrote from Awka, Anambra State.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2017/10/safe-anambra-state/amp/

BlacSmit:
More safer than ondo, ogun, osun, oyo, ekiti where the skull of both the living and dead are mined for livelihood.

Ondo just became the capital of evil in western African yesterday. Ask your Alfa, he would explain better.

Kids everywhere trying to stir up ethnic bashing, what's the connection with the topic?
You couldn't even proffer any solution but trying to cause problems here with your free 10MB from Glo.

Obiano should look into the risks for Anambra. If Obi becomes VP his home town is Anambra, not Abuja, not Lagos....so the state will gain political visibility and lobbyists wanting to come to town. Security risks will kill market. Pack all the criminals up and donate them to python.

Yyeske:
Kids everywhere trying to stir up ethnic bashing, what's the connection with the topic?
You couldn't even proffer any solution but trying to cause problems here with your free 10MB from Glo.

You left the Op who is a well known igbo hater like you don't know what he trying to do an attacking another person? Even if it to profer solution , such topic should not come from someone like the Op.

Lagos is the world capital of one chance. The state is so organized that syndicates now openly do ritual killing and sell human parts in open markets

BlacSmit:
More safer than ondo, ogun, osun, oyo, ekiti where the skull of both the living and dead are mined for livelihood.

Ondo just became the capital of evil in western African yesterday. Ask your Alfa, he would explain better.

There they go. Always having nightmares about Yorubas. This one is too blinded by hate to see the question was put forward by their darling newspaper Vanguard, and authored by a pig.

Omnipresent:
You left the Op who is a well known igbo hater like you don't know what he trying to do an attacking another person? Even if it to profer solution , such topic should not come from someone like the Op.

I can talk about anywhere in Nigeria i want.

Omnipresent:
You left the Op who is a well known igbo hater like you don't know what he trying to do an attacking another person? Even if it to profer solution , such topic should not come from someone like the Op.

The message and not the Messenger should be the what should be talked about. You are an Igbo hater and not me because you couldn't come out with any solution but supporting the childish instincts of who I quoted.
A great Igbo city is being threatened and all both of you can come up with is trying to bash someone else

kettykin:
Lagos is the world capital of one chance. The state is so organized that syndicates now openly do ritual killing and sell human parts in open markets

Leave Lagos for Yorubas, what's your solution to the menace in Onitsha now?

Op, I now see your craze. Anambra and Igbos keep you awake all night.
Sorry my brother, there's nothing you can really do to stop a naturally more superior people eating your lunch every day!

naijaking1:
Op, I now see your craze. Anambra and Igbos keep you awake all night.
Sorry my brother, there's nothing you can really do to stop a naturally more superior people eating your lunch every day!

What's your say about the current menace in Onitsha or aren't you concerned?

Corrinthians:
There they go. Always having nightmares about Yorubas. This one is too blinded by hate to see the question was put forward by their darling newspaper Vanguard, and authored by a pig.

omenka shame on you again. Go and focus on your newly married wife. Stop being a nuisance here

Yyeske:
What's your say about the current menace in Onitsha or aren't you concerned?

What menace? Crimes, kidnapping, robberies?
Ask the corrupt government of Buhari whose police officers in Onitsha make the situation worse.
Give locals control of police force, and see total wipe out of the menace.

CarlosTheJackal:
omenka shame on you again. Go and focus on your newly married wife. Stop being a nuisance here

Give us your take about the current situation in Onitsha and ways to resolve it.
Any recommendation to the state government?

Yyeske:
Leave Lagos for Yorubas, what's your solution to the menace in Onitsha now?

The state or local police should step up their game of arresting miscreants and touts.

The state government should also step up engagement of idle youths by giving them jobs .

Blockage of sale and consumption of hard drugs should be enforced

Developmental issues are everywhere. The state government should ban burning of refuse within city center and tar that okpoko road to reduce dust within the city center.
Also a tax force on environmental issues should be inaugurated to punish those who degrade the environment with refuse

Yyeske:
The message and not the Messenger should be the what should be talked about. You are an Igbo hater and not me because you couldn't come out with any solution but supporting the childish instincts of who I quoted.
A great Igbo city is being threatened and all both of you can come up with is trying to bash someone else

Read in between the lines I never called you an igbo hater, or maybe. And no it's insulting to profer solution to a discussion created by a chronic Igbo hater. His intentions are not sincere, but you can keep feigning ignorance .

naijaking1:


What menace? Crimes, kidnapping, robberies?
Ask the corrupt government of Buhari whose police officers in Onitsha make the situation worse.
Give locals control of police force, and see total wipe out of the menace.

Now you're talking instead of attacking someone for bringing on a topic of importance

Omnipresent:
Read in between the lines I never called you an igbo hater, or maybe. And no it's insulting to profer solution to a discussion created by a chronic Igbo hater. His intentions are not sincere, but you can keep feigning ignorance .

Onitsha is under attack, forget any other thing. Whoever brought up the topic shouldn't be the issue but the message should.
Several threads had been created recently about the crime rate in Onitsha but people like you turn a blind eye to such.

Yyeske:
Now you're talking instead of attacking someone for bringing on a topic of importance

Attack?
Someone needs to say how biased his posts are consistently against a certain group.

kettykin:

The state or local police should step up their game of arresting miscreants and touts.

The state government should also step up engagement of idle youths by giving them jobs .

Blockage of sale and consumption of hard drugs should be enforced

Developmental issues are everywhere. The state government should ban burning of refuse within city center and tar that okpoko road to reduce dust within the city center.
Also a tax force on environmental issues should be inaugurated to punish those who degrade the environment with refuse

Nice one, hope someone in government is reading this good suggestion of yours.

naijaking1:


Attack?
Someone needs to say how biased his posts are consistently against a certain group.

Face the message, simple.
Save Onitsha.

Yyeske:
What's your say about the current menace in Onitsha or aren't you concerned?

Ibo has no solution for his problem. He will wail for govt to bail him out, even if it takes 100yrs...he will wait.

He lacks ingenuity for urbanism.

Look at foreign diplomats visiting Jagaban at Bourdillon. He is not even a VP.

When Obi becomes VP it would be natural to attract foreign investment East, since theyve cried for eternity about neglect. He cannot do that if he is accessible to them only in Lagos or Abuja.

So how does it look when important personalities cannot visit Anambra because of security risks and fear of kidnap?


This is how Yoruba think. Into the future.

naijaking1:


Attack?
Someone needs to say how biased his posts are consistently against a certain group.

Yoruba has never accused Ibo of bias for your constant attack and disparage against Ibadan....or Asiwaju.

Why are you so sensitive and self-centered. What have i said thats an attack?

Tell me who i attack.

Yyeske:
Face the message, simple.
Save Onitsha.

Come on, be real. Are trying to save Onitsha- the biggest non capital African city, by consistently publishing false ttash about it?

I tell something Onitsha can't be destroyed despite federal strangulation, organized tribal jealousy, and consistently false press by you people.

Like every city in the World, especially Nigeria , Onitsha has some challenges, but also has the greatest potential of all. The western Yoruba press work overtime doing negative press as a way stopping people going to Onitsha, but guess what? It's not working!

kettykin:
Lagos is the world capital of one chance. The state is so organized that syndicates now openly do ritual killing and sell human parts in open markets

Are you suggesting that crime in anambra should continue as it is unattended because there is also crime in Lagos?

Supporters of crime are criminals.

ImperialYoruba:
Obiano should look into the risks for Anambra. If Obi becomes VP his home town is Anambra, not Abuja, not Lagos....so the state will gain political visibility and lobbyists wanting to come to town. Security risks will kill market. Pack all the criminals up and donate them to python.

I thought you had something to offer not knowing you're just a yellow pawpaw AFONJA Muslim TERRORIST looking for attention...

All your posts has been against Igbo, Onitsha etc...

YORUBA STATES ARE REPUBLIC OF SKULL MINNING IN THE WORLD....

Omnipresent:
Read in between the lines I never called you an igbo hater, or maybe. And no it's insulting to profer solution to a discussion created by a chronic Igbo hater. His intentions are not sincere, but you can keep feigning ignorance .

You all are excited when brown roof is in ridicule, even as a diversion from topics. You also are happy to attack Jagaban, even as he strives daily to make life easy and livable for you in his state.

Soon as Yoruba open topic on Iboland na cry cry and wail wail.....ohhh they hate us, they are bigots, biased, envious, backstabbing.

Im a Nigerian and can talk about any village, any autonomous community, any town in Iboland. Nothing and no one can stop me. . You go just cry na ni, lobatan!

naijaking1:


Come on, be real. Are trying to save Onitsha- the biggest non capital African city, by consistently publishing false ttash about it?

I tell something Onitsha can't be destroyed despite federal strangulation, organized tribal jealousy, and consistently false press by you people.

Like every city in the World, especially Nigeria , Onitsha has some challenges, but also has the greatest potential of all. The western Yoruba press work overtime doing negative press as a way stopping people going to Onitsha, but guess what? It's not working!

This is the author.

Mr. Atupulazi Jude, editor of Fides Newspaper, wrote from Awka, Anambra State.


Is that Yoruba name? .
Is Awka Yorubaland?

naijaking1:
Op, I now see your craze. Anambra and Igbos keep you awake all night.
Sorry my brother, there's nothing you can really do to stop a naturally more superior people eating your lunch every day!

Pls rapu umune anyi ha ka ha ganiru biri nudo nebe ha bi.

Unu ejizina arrogant ekwutere anyi nsogbu.

BlacSmit:
More safer than ondo, ogun, osun, oyo, ekiti where the skull of both the living and dead are mined for livelihood.

Ondo just became the capital of evil in western African yesterday. Ask your Alfa, he would explain better.

Stop the tribalism, it's getting annoying , you log on to this site and all you read is annoying trivialities. I will write about this before the end of the week.

Crime is a national problem, and the efforts to curb it must be a centrally planned solution. Our security agencies aren't doing enough really. I am currently in Anambra.