The security situation in the South East is worsening by the day as the governor of Enugu State appears to have escalated the already boiled situation by canceling the weekly sit-at-home order by the Eastern Security Network, ESN
By Miracle Egbo
Security experts have come up with many suggestions on the best way to end the insecurity in the South Eastern region of the country. According to them, the political leaders of the region especially the sitting governors should engage in non- kinetic method in resolving the crisis, adding that criminalizing the Eastern Security Network, ESN has not helped because investigation revealed that the unknown gunmen are not the same as the ESN. The experts advised the state governments of the South East to eschew force in handling the issue of sit-at-home declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, adding that the recent kinetic method applied in the region is not solving the problem instead it is escalating it. The optics is that the leadership of the region is not forthcoming with lasting solution in this regard, the reason the non state actors are taking upper hands in the region since incarceration of the leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kalu even when court of the competent jurisdiction has ordered his freedom, but for no just cause, the government is breaching his freedom.
The renewed escalation of the security situation was heightened with the recent rascal order by the new mint governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah to halt the sit-at-home order in the state without proper consultation with the stakeholders in this regard. Mr. Mbah publicly renounced the constitutional prohibited sit-at-home order, sparking a synchronized outbreak of ostentatious knocks and kudos among ESN sympathizers and cons of the non-state actors in the state. The ESN cons were determined, according to investigation, to make the price of the stoppage of the sit-at-home as ordered by Mbah to be impermissibly prohibitive. And it appears the narrative of the sympathizers of ESN has gained currency because the order countering the sit-at-home seemingly is being defied not by the enforcers but those who are being enforced.
Residents of the state have faulted the order of the governor because adequate security is not provided for the citizens who want to obey the order of not staying at home, adding those who defied the order of the ESN an enforcing arm of IPOB are already counting their losses as some have lost their lives in the process. For weeks now since Mbah’s order, residents of Enugu metropolis and its environs have lost sleep because the ESN operatives have vowed to prove to Mbah and his supporters that they are capable of containing whatever onslaught that he has contrived in questioning the authority of the group.
Mbah told newsmen in Abuja when he paid courtesy call on the Chief of Naval Staff, Emmanuel Ogallah recently that he could not allow non-state actors to take over the governance of the state. He equally accused the Nigeria media of emboldening the terrorist in the state by escalating their exploits in the media. “Sit-at-home and its associated threat seem to be migrated to the media space; it does appear that we are now being exposed to the media terror. So our people are increasingly being terrorized by these vagabonds, hoodlums and murderers when they believe they can sit wherever they are and dictate to us when they want us to work and take a break. They even have the temerity to tell us the number of days they want us to sit-at-home, go home and rest.
“Now do not forget that the people go on with this whole thing without our consent, we did not give them our mandate. The government can talk to you about curfew, or make pronouncement because it has your mandate, you elected the person making this pronouncement. But what we are experiencing now is that our people are being cowed and intimidated. Once you hear any noise, you would see people scampering. In fact, even those in the rooms would look for somewhere to hide. It is gradually taking over us, and we do have a duty to change the narrative”, reasoned Mbah
Mbah reasoning in this regard was the lot of the governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo when he was newly minted as the governor of the state. At the wake of his posture in handling the activities of ESN is the harvest of deaths of prominent citizens of the state, and increase in the escalation of the insecurity in the state. Soludo’s stand in the security situation and the narratives he was wont to propagate never improved security in the state instead security nosedived. The approach of Mbah and Soludo is metaphoric of the approach of the South East governors since the infamous trajectory of the ESN was engrossed in the security architecture of the region.
The story of insecurity in Imo, Ebonyi and Abia States are not encouraging at all. Investigation orchestrated by this medium revealed that the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma is even worse in handling the activities of ESN in his state. According to investigation, Uzodinma instead of dousing the escalating insecurity in the state he is alleged to have actually helped in escalating the situation by allegedly supporting the group by his action and inaction. In the state the statement credited to the Commissioner for Police, Mohammed Ahmed Barde had further worsen the security situation in the state, what with the arrest of suspected terrorists in the course of riding the state of criminals terrorizing the state.
Ebonyi State has had a considerable share of the insecurity no thanks to the activities of the former governor of the State, Senator Dave Umahi. Dave’s style of recruiting a private army that goes by the name Ebubeagu further deepened the bad security situation in the state. Worse still, the former governor used the private army, Ebubeagu to torment his political opponent in the state, and in another breathe used it to counter the activities of the ESN in the state which worsen the security situation. At the wake of his tenure as the governor of the state deaths were recorded in digits.
It is only Abia State that appears to be experiencing peace, though argued a respondent, and is a peace of the grave yard that is pregnant with product nobody can determine. Whatever is the case, the approach of the South East governors has not helped in dousing the insecurity situation in the region.
