By Collins Ughalaa
On Wednesday, December 28, the good news broke about a major breakthrough in the ongoing fight against insecurity in Imo State. Gallant security men arrested a notorious bandit who deserted the military after eight years, Lance Corporal Nwagwu Chinwendu. He had been on the radder of security agencies in the state for close to two years now. The police said the bandit has been responsible for the security breaches in parts of the state, particularly the gruesome murder of Ahmed Gulak in 2021. When he sang to the police, the military trained engineer now turned bandit confessed to murdering Ahmed Gulak, servicing weapons, and later became the chief commander of the Eastern Security Network.
A native of Amaohuru Nguru, Aboh Mbaise LGA, the bandit was said to have been arrested during his father’s burial, where he tried to use guests as cover to escape. His men were said to have engaged security men in a gun duel, but he was captured alive. Nwagwu had already trained 1,000 bandits and masterminded the attack on the Imo custodial centre in 2021 as well as attacks on several police stations and INEC offices across the state. The attack on the custodial centre and the police command, where more than 1,800 inmates were released, the unconscionable murder of Gulak, the attack on the country home of Governor Hope Uzodimma in Omuma, Oru East LGA, and the introduction of cannibalism mark the highest point of security breaches in the state since unscrupulous politicians introduced insecurity into our political firmament.
Insecurity in Imo did not begin with the Uzodimma administration. Imo State witnessed its share of insecurity during past administrations, when militancy in the Niger Delta region introduced kidnapping for ransom. In those dark days, people were kidnapped from churches, homes, markets and workplaces. Communities had been rendered desolate, indigenes became refugees and traditional rulers escaped their kingdoms for fear of being killed. Armed robbery and cultism became commonplace, but all this may fade into insignificance when compared with what politicians introduced in Imo State after January 15, 2020.
Unable to bear their loss, these spineless and dangerous politicians resorted to unleashing mayhem to make the state ungovernable in order to create the false impression that the Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma was unfit for governance, that Imo people never wanted him in the first place, that he was forced on Imo people and that they have rejected him. But that’s not how to reject a government. If the people believe they have rejected a government, they usually wait for the next election when they have the opportunity to either return the government or vote out that government. The people do not pick up arms and unleash mayhem claiming to have rejected a government.
The unscrupulous politicians who are sponsoring insecurity in Imo did not know that their strategy would rather expose their underbelly. They knew that Uzodimma would perform so creditably and surpass their expectations; that if they allowed the governor to perform so well and shame them, they would not be able to use the ballot to remove him. They resorted to self-help, but what they saw as self-help was unleashing terror against the state. They had used protests and emotional blackmail but that did not work. They went back to their well written script and deployed insecurity, first launching an attack on the custodial centre and the police command in order to have criminals that could be at their beck and call. They have tried all tricks they have in their books to get the governor out of the Government House, including the gruesome murder of Gulak, but they failed.
Those who sponsored Gulak’s murder knew what they wanted to achieve. Having failed in all their tricks, they thought they could instigate the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in Imo in order to remove Uzodimma from Government House. When Uzodimma was declared governor by the Supreme Court in January 2020, the bad losers went to town with the false narrative that a certain northern cabal in the Presidency armtwisted the Supreme Court to declare him governor of Imo. Killing Gulak was, therefore, a clear attempt to setting up their imaginary northern cabal against Uzodimma. Their plan was that if killing Gulak failed to instigate a state of emergency in Imo, it could at least lead to reprisal attacks against Ndigbo living in the North. Either way, they would have succeeded in either getting a state of emergency or painting Uzodimma as an incompetent, rejected governor. But Uzodimma rose to the challenge and shocked them. Today, one of the arrowheads in the murder of Gulak has been arrested, and he is singing melodious tunes to the police.
Was it a conincidence that some of those who killed Gulak were annihilated by the police in a gun duel in Mbaise the same day Gulak was killed? Does it not raise concerns that the locals in Mbaise jubilated and hailed the bandits while collecting sacks of onions and tomatoes from them after they burnt trucks conveying goods to Imo the same day Gulak was killed? Does it not raise concerns that, about two years after, Lance Corporal Nwagwu Chinwendu, military deserter who hails from Mbaise, was also arrested in his community? Does it not raise concerns that the arrested bandit told the police how they operated freely in Mbaise and its environs, helped by a certain Ihedioha, to the point of setting up a camp in Mbaise? For sincere people, the confession by the arrested bandit that: “My gang, which includes Okechukwu Duru and others, led the kidnap of Jude Nwahiri on 4th November, 2021. We collected the sum of N21,000,000 as ransom after killing four persons in his residence at Umuohuru Nguru Aboh-Mbaise. I also led the killing of the traditional ruler of Amaohuru Nguru Aboh-Mbaise, His Royal Highness, Eze Anthony Anyanwu, on the 10th of December, 2021”, is nothing less than troubling.
Before this latest arrest, one Anosike Chimobi, a suspect linked to the murder of Gulak, was arrested by the Imo State Police Command in June 2021. He claimed that he was a commercial bus driver forced to drive Gulak’s murderers. The police also had, on Monday, December 12, 2022, foiled an attack on the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Owerri, neutralised three of the bandits and arrested two. This is the success story we hear in Imo as those who planned to make the Yuletide a sad one have either kissed the dust, were cooling their heels in a detention facility, ran away or were hiding somewhere while we enjoyed our Yuletide in peace.
Imo people, especially those who returned home for the Yuletide, cannot hold back their joy. According to a report by Daily Sun of Wednesday, December 28: “Some indigenes of Imo State who returned for the yuletide have expressed happiness with the level of security in the state as opposed to stories they were fed while abroad.” The report quoted the leader of Ala Imo Foundation, Success Akajiaku, to have told newsmen in Owerri that: “From the airport to this point, we observed everybody was moving freely contrary to what we were told over there.”
The report also quoted Mrs Maureen Nwachuku-Jacobs, an Imo indigene, but married to a USA citizen, saying that when she returned home for Christmas, she visited Orlu, went to Umuahia, saw good roads and moved about freely. She confessed: “I wanted to sell my land in Orlu due to the story we have been hearing about insecurity, but I changed my mind because I saw something different. Although there are still security breaches here and there, the situation on the ground is the opposite of what I heard and read on social media while in the USA.”
Agreeimg with the testimonies by Imo people who returned home, another Imo indigene, Emeka Aku, who also returned home for the yuletide, said: “This is so very true. I, too, was pleasantly surprised. We were led to believe Imo State is a war zone, and several people discouraged me from returning home. I had also made up my mind that this coming election would determine if I sell off all my investments and never come back to Nigeria. If things remain as calm and peaceful as it is this Christmas, then I would change my mind.”
Nitably, in his New Year’s message on Sunday, January 1, the governor assured Imo people that the “security situation will continue to improve this year. Our security agencies are now better equipped and better trained to confront the security challenges. I can further assure you that this year, the few unrepentant ungodly people and their sponsors who want to continue to unleash violence and insecurity in the state will be doing so at their own peril. Ndimo should be assured that we will all be safer this year. Above all, I give you my word that our dear state will do better this year in all ramifications than it did last year.”