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Last Updated: Friday, November 12th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page
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Security council meets today over Anambra crisis
� Ngige petitions IG �Azikiwe rejects state of emergency � Crisis is an act of war, says Ohaneze
By Chukwudi Achife (Enugu)
Okey Maduforo (Awka)
Paul Mumeh and
and Chesa Chesa (Abuja)
Aso Rock has waded into the latest anarchy in Anambra State as President Olusegun Obasanjo convenes an emergency
National Security Council (NSC) meeting today in Abuja to end it.
The meeting comes on the heels of Governor Chris Ngige�s flight from Awka to Abuja on Wednesday during which he
briefed the President on what he knows about the arson on government properties.
The meeting is said to be predicated on the premise that the latest crisis is a security problem, thus de-emphasising
the political squabbles that might have led to it.
Expected to attend are National Security Adviser (NSA) Mohammed Aliyu-Gusau, Chief of Defence Staff Gen, Alexander
Ogomudia, the three service chiefs, Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun, Director General of the State Security
Services, Col. Kayode Are, and Ngige.
Presidential spokesperson Oluremi Oyo said the meeting would be a final thrust towards ensuring durable peace in
the state as Obasanjo is very concerned about conflict which has defied his attempts to bring peace to the state.
Ngige has threatened to allow the citizens of the state to rise in self-defence if the police continue to abdicate
their responsibility of protecting lives and property.
In a new petition to Balogun, the governor said: �I have told the good people of Anambra State to be law abiding
and refrain from any act that will cause a further breach of the peace in the state. I have also asked them not
to take the laws into their hands by attacking these hoodlums as this is dearly the job of the police.�
�However, if this ugly situation persists, I will have no option than to let them rise up and chase away these
hoodlums and imported thugs if the police cannot live up to their responsibilities.
�I am extremely at a loss at this turn of events, more so when my Commissioner for Special Duties, Sir Chris Atuegwu,
had on behalf of the state government, intimated before hand the police commissioner of these actions as they were
being hatched�.
Ngige alleged that his political opponent Chris Uba is behind the renewed hostilities to destabilise the state.
He added that the Uba faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) engaged the services of National Association
of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and some imported thugs to cause more trouble.
However, son of the first Nigerian President, Chukwuma Bamidele Azikiwe, has described the rumoured plot to impose
emergency rule on Anambra State by Abuja as baseless, saying the situation does not call for it.
He told reporters in Awka that his father�s anniversary lecture cannot hold as scheduled, and that due to the prevailing
circumstances in the state they will not want to expose the guests to danger.
He argued that for a state of emergency to be declared, there must have been a breakdown of law and order, insisting
that the present situation does not call for one.
Meanwhile, additional officers of the State Security Service (SSS) were reportedly deployed to the Governor�s Lodge,
Awka to protect Ngige�s wife Evelyn and her children.
A source said the security operates were directed to shoot on sight any miscreants found attempting to foment trouble.
In its reaction, the Anambra State chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo said the new conflict is an act of war which needs
to be arrested immediately before the state is completely destroyed
State Ohanaeze Chairman Dozie Ikedife, who addressed newsmen in Enugu on Thursday, decried the vandalism and disrespect
for the rule of law, adding that the incident is a terrible blow to the entire nation.
He recalled that the crisis has been lingering since after the 2003 elections, but with the new level of destruction,
�the events have gone beyond the governor and even gone beyond politics.�
He blamed the PDP for its inability to resolve the intra-party squabbles thereby turning Anambra into a conflict
zone.
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