RAYMOND OZOJI reports
Deputy Commander-General (Intelligence) of the Nigerian Forest Security Service (NFSS) and Prime Minister of the Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) Amb. Dr. John Metchie has observed that Anambra is relatively calm following Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo's rapid response to security breaches across the state.
Metchie also observed that the state witnessed pockets of incessant Killings and Kidnappings in recent times but the introduction of the Operation Udo Ga Achi special intervention force, according to him, has enthroned relative peace and calmness in various communities.
Metchie who doubles as the President-General of Umueri community in Anambra-East Local Government Area , said there is a noticeable reduction in kidnap cases across Ànambra since the Agunechemba strike force began operations in the state.
He told HEADLINE NEWS that it has been a festival of demolition and destruction of criminal hideouts, arrests of criminal suspects as well as recovery of illegal firearms and weapons of mass destruction in the custody of criminals.
According to him, the mass media and online media are awashed with the breakthroughs being recorded by the personnel of the Udo Ga Achi Security Team, noting that video evidences of arrests of hoodlums making confessional statements abound.
He said that the newly conscripted Udo Ga Achi security squad comprising Agunechemba has discovered and uprooted kidnappers' dens at Oba, Nnewi, Enugwu-Agidi, Ihiala, Umunze and some other places coupled with the neutralization of over 6 gunmen at Lilu community in Ihiala Local Government Area by the Agunechemba squad recently.
Metchie who is also a security consultant reiterated the need to support Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo to ensure that the new security strategy designed to finding lasting solutions to security lapses in the state succeeded. That rather than politicize insecurity, all hands must be on deck to ensure that Anambra State remains calm devoid of the horror of the men of the underworld.
Metchie who emphasized that those calling for the governor's resignation over insecurity, should bear in mind that insecurity is not peculiar to Anambra alone as it is all over the country. He noted that the issue with Anambra State is that everything about it is being blown out of proportions in the social media.
He therefore emphasized that what happens in Northern states are worst than what happens in Anambra State and that people resort to spreading fake news about happenings in the state.
He maintained that Governor Soludo is trying because the entire Southeast is bedevilled by insecurity as he equally believes that in due time and with the ongoing clampdown on daredevil gunmen and other criminal elements, peace will surely prevail in the entire state; re-echoing the fact that Operation Udo Ga Achi has come to stay in Anambra State and must achieve its aim of restoring lasting peace in the state.