|
Listen now
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Anambra State governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo has said that his administration’s new approach to tackling insecurity in the state was getting to the root of the problem that had engulfed the state over the years, insisting that doing so would give the people fresh breath.
Speaking when he received a letter of award for good governance from the management of Vanguard Media Limited at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, Soludo said he had no choice but to give it his all because God in his infinite wisdom decided that he should mount the saddle at this period in the history of Anambra State.
Recalling that seven local government areas in Anambra South senatorial zone were controlled by non state actors at the time he became governor almost three years ago, he expressed delight that although the security challenges have not been completely solved, the new impetus by his administration would see the entire state return to normal in the shortest possible time.
Recently, following the passage of the state’s Homeland Security Law by the state House of Assembly, the state government established the ‘Udo ga achi’ security outfit, with Agunechemba as its operational arm.
Since then, following massive empowerment with operational vehicles and logistics, the operatives of Agunechemba have permeated the entire state, arresting suspected fake native doctors and pastors allegedly encouraging the youths to go into crime in their quest to get rich quick.
Soludo said: “We have decided to take security issue at the foundation level. It’s not just about chasing the criminals, it’s about getting to the roots. There are practices in the system that have continued to brew them and so, we decided to get to the root and start uprooting them. I am quite fascinated about how our efforts are being received.
“Many of our women are lamenting that they trained their children, but they have basically lost them. They are now saying that they are beginning to have some hope and I know that this crusade is not a push button. In the coming decades, it will be appreciated that this generation imbibed certain attitudes.”
He added: “As Igbos, our values are rooted in enterprise, hard work and integrity. Unfortunately, there is this new religion that promises people a crown with no cross and that all you need is to bring money to the pastor and God will be a money doubler, but God wouldn’t double for him. He needs your own money for God to bless you. They tell our people that when they are sick, they should come and they will pray for them. They bring anointing oil which you pay for and handkerchief, but when they are sick, they fly abroad.
“You are going to bring people to Okite ( a prosperous medicine box) and they become rich, but he hasn’t made himself rich. He depends on the thanksgiving you make for him to feed. His brothers and relations are all wretched, but he is deceiving gullible people that they can become rich through him.”
“I understand that one of the children of one of the native doctors we arrested is working in one hotel in Imo state as a waiter. And this is the man making Okite for people to become rich, but he can’t make his child rich. The unfortunate thing is that because of their actions, thousands of our youths are languishing in jail all over the world.
“They made Okite for these youths with the promise that they will pass security checkpoints with hard drugs and the machines won’t detect them and when they pass, the machines will catch them and they are in jail all over the world. And when they can’t get that, they go into yahoo yahoo. And because that one had failed, they went into the bush and became kidnappers to make easy money because they were promised that they don’t need to sweat.”
Soludo said that security operatives are gradually coming for these pastors who promote and encourage them.
“If they have the powers they claim to have, let them make all Anambra people millionaires. In that case, all of us will be sleeping and we wake up in the morning and receive $1 million alerts. Some of them are either in detention, or have run away and as we carry the message, I am encouraged by the way the public is receiving them.
“We can’t go on this way. We have kept quiet for too long. Our streams are being polluted by the Ezenwanay’s (fake mermaids) and people go there and put all sorts of things into the water and other people are a few poles away fetching the same water for drinking.
Follow the MoneyCentral Nigeria channel on WhatsApp: Click here!
