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Last Updated: Friday, November 12th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page
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19 feared dead as mayhem continues in Anambra
� Deputy Gov, Speaker, Commissioners take refuge in police station � Wabara, PDP condemn renewed hostilities
By Chukwudi Achife
(Enugu), Okey Maduforo
(Awka), Paul Mumeh and
Adetutu Folasade Koyi (Abuja)
An incredible spate of destruction, arson and killings was unleashed on Awka and Onitsha on Thursday by political
thugs in the second day of civil disorder that has bedeviled the state since Tuesday.
Unconfirmed reports claimed that 14 persons have been killed and more than 20 injured in Awka in fights between
supporters of Governor Chris Ngige and his political opponent Chris Uba. Five were reportedly killed in Onitsha.
Government House, which was partly burnt on Tuesday, was on Thursday razed as was the state Assembly complex.
The transmitting station of the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) in Awka, the television station in Onitsha and
the Women Development Centre in Awka went up in flames.
Ikenga Hotels, Awka the only hotel owned by the state government, was vandalised and more than seven cars parked
in its premises, mostly belonging to guests, were destroyed. The headquarters of the Onitsha Local Government Council
was torched.
The mayhem in Awka was carried out by a band of thugs numbering over 1,000 and travelling in more than 100 mini
buses. They wielded all kinds of weapons, ranging from shotguns, machetes, cudgels, dynamites, pistols and clubs
and drove freely from one government building to another setting them ablaze in turns. They also reportedly shot
sporadically into the air to scare away people.
In some cases, they burnt tyres and blocked roads at will and unleashed terror on innocent indigenes as well as
travellers passing through the state.
Curiously, the police were hardly anywhere to be found as all these took place. Where they were present, they formed
part of the crowd of spectators watching as public buildings were torched.
A team of mobile policemen drove around the town but carefully avoided the rampaging mob. Government House, which
was manned by the police after Tuesday�s attack, was left unguarded when the arsonists struck again on Thursday
at around 1.30 p.m.
There were reports that the Deputy Governor, the Speaker, Deputy speaker and several commissioners in the Ngige
cabinet ran to the Police command Headquarters in Awka to take refuge.
The whole thing wore the appearance of a carefully coordinated effort at causing a breakdown of law and order.
A member of the National Assembly from the state allegedly disbursed money openly while directing operations. However,
members of the state vigilante service reasonably mobilised their members to secure the government lodge just as
the state government reportedly went on air to call for restraint.
Both the Ngige and Uba camps have continued to blame each other for the sad turn of events in their perennial tussle
for supremacy.
The Governor�s media aide, Fred Chukwuelobe had, in a statement, alleged that the Uba camp (which had failed in
two earlier attempts to unseat Ngige) had planned the current unrest as a pretext for the declaration of a state
of emergency in the state by the Federal Government.
Uba�s camp, however, alleged that the crisis was precipitated by an attempt by Ngige supporters to stop a rally
of the faction�s candidates for the December 18 council election. They claimed that the governor�s supporters had
destroyed a podium erected for the rally and vandalised the party headquarters in Awka.
As if to confirm Chukwuelobe�s claims on the issue of state of emergency, a member of the Uba faction and Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) Vice Chairman in the Anambra south senatorial zone, Chris Orajekwe, said there is now a
total breakdown of law and order which calls for an urgent intervention by Abuja.
He claimed that the mass destruction of public buildings and facilities is being carried out by irate Anambra youths
protesting Ngige�s attempt at denying them their political rights.
Senate President Adolphus Wabara has condemned the renewed hostilities, just as the PDP warned that unless the
crisis is curtailed, democracy will be in jeopardy.
Wabara tasked the police and other security operatives to rise up to the challenge of protecting lives and property
in the state.
He urged the PDP hierarchy to deal with any party member in the state fuelling the conflict.
Receiving the Chairman of the dismembered state PDP, Uche Emordi, and some members of the National Assembly from
the state, including Uba�s elder brother Senator Ugochukwu Uba, at the party secretariat, the PDP feared that the
crisis is assuming a dangerous dimension capable of consuming the democratic project in Nigeria.
Its National Publicity Secretary Venatius Ikem, who stood in for the National Chairman Audu Ogbeh, insisted that
the development in Anambra is strange and unfortunate.
The party, he said, has resolved to take drastic steps against any of its members found to participate in the renewed
troubles.
See more stories and pictures on Anambra on A12
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