The Abia State Government has described as false the rumour making rounds that it has asked the northern community at Lokpanta cattle market to leave the state.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Navy Commander Macdonald Ubah, made this clarification while briefing journalists in Umuahia on Monday evening.
He noted that the Lokpanta-Umunnochi-Uturu axis of the state has been under siege by criminals for about a year now, prompting the major steps recently taken by the state government to eliminate the spate of kidnappings and other criminal activities in the areas.
According to him, preliminary investigations point to the Lokpanta cattle market as a major hideout of recent kidnappings and other crimes, noting that ransom for kidnapping victims along the axis was paid in the market, a situation that made the government, among other measures, carry out deliberate actions, including the demolition of brothel rooms numbering more than 160 and shanties in the market.
Navy Commander Ubah also described Governor Alex Otti as a detribalised Nigerian, having also appointed non-Abians in his cabinet, noting that most of the cattle dealers in the state are 2nd and 3rd generations of Igbos. Therefore, the Governor Otti-led government couldn’t have given such a directive.
He said that the stand of the government is that the market would no longer be residential but rather a daily market, maintaining that the government’s decision to make Lokpanta Cattle Market a daily market is in the interest of the government and the cattle dealers. He stressed that the government will not rescind the decision on the basis of mere rumours.
It would be recalled that the Security Adviser to the Governor had on two occasions held meetings with the leadership of the market unions, where he informed them of the government’s decision to make the market a daily one for security reasons.”
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