Alphonsus Nweze
The Anambra Youth Vanguard ((AYV) has decried the high degree of crime in Anambra State especially the kidnapping and outright killings of innocent people in the State.
The youth vanguard in a statement released in Awka, the State capital yesterday said in the last three months of 2022, from October to December, more than 91 kidnappings took place in the State, lamenting that some of them resulted in the outright murder of the victims, while others who were lucky paid their way with huge amount of money as ransom.
Irked by this development, the youth group called for an overhaul of various departments of the State Police Command that have to do with crime especially the Anti-Kidapping Squad.
The group in the statement signed by their chairman, Bar Nnamdi Onaya, lamented that the State has been under siege by criminal elements and it appears that the security operatives have lost grip and therefore helpless in confronting these criminals.
The youth group stated that from the investigation they conducted in the State, the entire Anambra South and Anambra Central might have been taken over by the criminal elements.
It condemned the brutal murder of Obosi PG and nine others on January 2, 2023
Giving a breakdown of the activities of criminal elements in the State the youth group said that in Umeoji alone, Idemili North, there are about four kidnapping gangs, Ideani, three kidnapping gangs, Oba-Mili John in Ojoto, two, Nkpor, Old Road, three, Nnobi-Oraukwu, two, Ezinfinite -Uga, three, Oraukwu-Ekwulobia, one, Oraukwu-Uga, two, Obosi, four groups, Nkpor- Ogidi, Building Material Market three.
They said the entire areas have so many gangs and therefore they are danger zones.
The other criminal gangs are operating in other parts of the State, lamenting that security operatives in the State are not doing enough like their counterparts in Imo State, who have had breakthroughs in the fight against kidnapping and other criminal activities in the State.
They called for the immediate removal of t the Commander of, the Anti-Kidapping Squad of the Anambra State Police Command, Patrick Agbazue, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
The group said Agbazue who has been a former Special Anti-Robbery Squad Commander before it was changed to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Annex, Awkuzu, has been the Anti-Kidapping Commander for about four years in the State
The group also said he should give way for other officers to try their best, lamenting that his Local Government Area, Ihiala, is the worst hit by criminal activities going on daily in the local government unchallenged.
It unequivocally condemned the recent alleged auctioning of nine nine cars said to have been recovered by the Ogidi Police Division without consulting the owners and did not follow due process.
The group called for the immediate reversal of the sale and recovery of the vehicles with immediate effect and hand them over to the rightful owners in line with the extant laws.
They decried that the Police Headquarters in Ihiala Local Government Area was a few days ago razed down by criminals without adequate response from security operatives.
The Anambra Youth Vanguard said the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, should replace the Anti-Kidapping Commander with another capable officer who will reinvigorate the fight against criminals in the State, especially kidnappings, car snatching among other high-profile criminal activities and change from defensive crime-fighting method to an offensive strategy.
