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Anambra govt
officials go into hiding
FELIX UKA, Awka,
FELIX NWANERI, Lagos and agency
report
MANY
top government officials in Anambra State may have fled their official
residences and gone into hiding for fear of kidnap by unidentified opponents.
But as the officials ran for dear
life, 177 communities in the state vowed to deal with individuals who threaten
the lives of top government functionaries by using naked women to shame them and
invoking the wrath of the local gods to bring disaster to perpetrators.
The situation in Anambra also
attracted the comments of Gov. Bola Tinubu of Lagos State who cautioned against
handling the matter as a party affair.
Speaker of the Anambra State
House of Assembly, Mr. Mike Balonwu, told newsmen that he and some other
legislators had been receiving anonymous calls, threatening their lives.
Balonwu said the lives of the
lawmakers were now in "the hands of President Olusegun Obasanjo and God for
protection."
"Light and darkness are
competing for the soul of Anambra State. We stand for light, democracy and we
are law abiding citizens," he said.
A source close to the state
government corroborated Balonwu’s views, saying that after kidnapping the
officials, the kidnappers will compel their victims to sign resignation letters
at gun point.
The source said the aim is to
force the functionaries to quit Ngige’s administration en-masse, thus making
it impossible for the government to function.
The source noted that hoodlums
and thugs were still threatening to burn the Government Lodge, Amawbia, the only
sensitive public infrastructure that survived the recent mayhem.
Umbrella body of the 177
communities, the Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) warned
yesterday that it would not tolerate any attack on top government officials.
President of ASATU, Dr. Ben
Eze-Agbaogu told newsmen that in as much as the hoodlums who attacked the state
property quit the scenes unhurt, the communities would unleash all within their
culture and powers to thwart any attempt on lives of the functionaries.
He said Anambrarians are
law-abiding citizens and would not employ unlawful measures to stop or avenge
any further harm on the state or her government personnel, saying "enough
is enough, we know what and how we can go about protecting what is ours."
On specific measures of attack
the communities might adopt in the event that the functionaries were attacked,
he said "in the first instance, women in the area who are married (Umuada)
would go naked, and invoke gods of the land perpetrators of the mayhem and other
ugly things we are hearing." He declined to give a date for the action.
The ASATU boss said such action
by the Umuada would cause the gods to strike those behind the attack with
mysterious afflictions.
"In some cases, it could be
accident, blindness or any mysterious thing that could cause sudden death."
It had severally worked against guilty persons," he stressed.
The body, ASATU had earlier in a
communique signed by the president, Eze-Agbogu and the secretary, Prof.
Amandieneze Obi-Okoye called on the Federal Government to immediately set up a
high powered judicial panel of inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge to
investigate the immediate or remote causes of the mayhem and bring the
perpetrators to book.
Answering questions from
journalists at the Presidential Lounge of the Murtala Muhammed International
Airport, Lagos, Gov. Tinubu, who condemned the wanton destruction of government
property in Anambra by hoodlums, expressed disagreement that the issue was a
party affair.
"I don’t think it is a
family affair. That is no family affair. I disagree completely. It is a
political matter. It is all about power. Yes, agreed that power is not served a
la carte, but it is not by destroying the state and taking laws into your
hands," he said.
The governor described the
incident as unacceptable, urging politicians to exhibit a sense of maturity and
understanding as gangsterism and thuggery are not part of politics.
"The Anambra incident is
sorrowful, disgusting, embarrassing, anti-democratic, terrible and, bad image
for the country and extremely unacceptable. I sympthaise with the people and
government of the state.
"We have to develop great
political maturity and understanding what happened in the state was not
politics, it is hate and destruction. It is not democracy. It is dictatorship,
gangsterism and thuggery as well as wishful damage of the state’s
property," Tinubu explained.
"They tried it in Lagos with
the introduction of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) which go about
extorting money from people instead of repairing roads.
"It is lawlessness and you
hear a lot of complaints all over the place but that does not mean we are
cowards. We are just mindful because we worked for this democracy and Lagos is
the heart-beat of this nation politically. We take time to react but when we are
ready to deal with FERMA, we will deal with them squarely," Tinubu Tinubu
said.
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