From Harry Awurumibe, Owerri
Despite heavy presence of security forces across the 27 Local Government Areas of Imo state, indigenes are still not sleeping with their two eyes closed for fear of the unknown.
Prompt News can confirm that the level of insecurity has not dropped as cases of people being kidnapped on a daily basis have been on the increase both in the city and rural areas just as the incidents of shootings have become a frequent occurrence.
A drive around the state which once prides itself as the “Entertainment Capital of Nigeria” has become a shadow of its former self as fear of the men of the underworld has driven many people especially the wealthy into hibernation.
Some businessmen have now abandoned their shops in the three big cities of Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu following the new trend of the kidnappers brazenly going to the shops to pick their targets and still making their ways out of the tight security cordon of the members of the security agencies.
Cases of owners of independent petroleum products retailers; general goods merchants and building materials sellers are being targeted in the rural areas of the state.
Commuters and transport owners are not spared either as they narrate their ordeals of constantly running into the kidnappers and bandits who take some unfortunate passengers hostage for ransom.
Prompt News can also confirm that the most notorious areas the dastardly acts occur regularly are the Ihiala-Orsu-Orlu road; Enugu- Lokpanta-Okigwe Expressway; Okigwe-Okwelle road; Okwe-Anara road and Okigwe-Umuduru- Umuahia road.
Other hotspots in Imo state are the Umuelemai-Anara-Nwangele road; Ugiri-Amaraku-Atta road; Oru-East- Mgbidi-Awo-Omama road and many communities and villages.
Worst, the menace has made social activities including traditional and white wedding ceremonies; Chieftancy titles and burial and traditional festivals cancelled entire while those who can afford to hire security agencies pay huge amount of money to secure their environment.
Aside such ceremonies being a fertile ground for the bad guys to strike, they use the occasion to identify those to be attacked, a situation which has made many people to stay away from public gatherings to avoid being picked especially those who came with flashy cars and well dressed.
Curiously, some of the kidnappers brazenly drive around in the villages in the convoys of three or more Sienna buses wielding assorted automatic weapons but still sneak passed several security check-points on the major roads in the state.
For example, a bus ride from Owerri to Okigwe via Anara town, there are more than six Check-points and motorized checks on the road yet kidnapping and abductions occur almost on a daily basis.
A community leader who spoke to our reporter on the condition of anonymity gave a graphic accounts of how kidnapping syndicates in a convoy of three Sienna buses were combing from village to village in some of the local government areas looking for preys to abduct.
“The kidnappers always come in their convoy, drive slowly in the villages looking for who to abduct. I saw with my naked eyes how they drove to where I packed my vehicle, luckily I did not obstruct the road, so they just looked at us scornfully and drove past”, said the man who pleaded anonymity.
Meanwhile, Prompt News reports that the federal government may have doubled the number of security agencies in the state to bring the situation under control as more personnel are deployed in the troubled spots in the state.
Some of the Check-points have combination of Police and military personnels with some positioning themselves far away from the Chidi in case there are attacks on the forces.
Efforts to get the security agencies speak on the state of affairs were not successful as the fears of the kidnappers, Unknown Gun Men (UGM), marauders and their likes have conspired to deny Imo indigenes their normal lives.
