Youths Take Over Govt House

Daily Champion (Lagos)
NEWS
January 7, 2004
Posted to the web January 7, 2004

By FELIX UKA and ALPHONSUS NWEZE
Awka and Onitsha
FOLLOWING the disarming and withdrawal of Governor Chris Ngige's securitymen,
scores of youths in Anambra State now guard the governor.
The state government also disclosed that Gov. Ngige had not fled the state.
The disclosures coincided with the reopening of major markets in the state.
The markets were shut on Monday in response to the gripping political
temperature in the state.
Special Adviser to the Governor on House of Assembly Matters, Chief Okeh Muo-
Aroh, told newsmen in Awka the state capital that some youths had volunteered
to guard the governor.
Muo-Aroh said the governor has the constitutional mandate to provide a security
arrangement for himself, pointing out that nobody should expect the governor to
allow himself to be frustrated and intimidated by any persons through
withdrawal of his security men.
He said the insinuation that Ngige had fled the state was not true.
Youths dressed in mufti now guard both Government House, Awka and the Governor
Lodge, Amawbia, even as they were not spotted with guns.
As traders' union leaders ordered the re-opening of markets, they pledged their
members' loyalty to the Governor.
President-General of State Market Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA)
caretaker committee Mr. Sylvester Odife Jnr. told Daily Champion that although
the markets have been re-opened market leaders had gone to Awka to further show
solidarity for the embattled governor.
He said they re-opened the markets to reduce the suffering of the ordinary
people who had spent all their money during the Christmas and New Year
festivities and needed to recoup through re-engaging in commercial activities.
He stressed that continued closure will take its toll on the ordinary
Anambrians.
Odife noted that the support of traders in the state who constitute a sizeable
number of the area's total population is unquestionable.
He called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to have a rethink and bring peace to
the state, stressing no individual should hold the entire state to a ransom
just because of personal interest.
The market leader who drove off to Awka with other leaders immediately after
the interview with Daily Champion also called on people of goodwill and genuine
democrats to condemn attempt to truncate democracy in Anambra State.

   

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