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Mayhem in Anambra

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
November 11, 2004
Posted to the web November 11, 2004

By Tony Edike, Sufuyan Ojeifo & Anayo Okoli

* Gov, ANSIEC offices, radio stations burnt
* Ngige accuses Inspector General of Police
A BAND of thugs yesterday went on the rampage in Awka and Ontisha, triggering
fresh terror in Anambra State. They torched and bombed public buildings
including parts of the state governor's office and the deputy governor's
office.
Also burnt were the three-storey building housing the State Independent
Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) where vital electoral materials were stored, two
transmitters of the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) in Onitsha and Enugwu-
Ukwu, near Awka. The building housing the State Education Commission was not
spared with missiles hauled at it, leaving several parts damaged in addition to
several cars parked within the premises and ANSIEC adjacent to it.
Many vehicles were vandalised or burnt in Awka metropolis by the hoodlums
numbering about 200. They were said to have swooped on the city from the
Onitsha end of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway armed with explosives suspected to
be bombs, pump action guns, axes, cutlasses and other lethal weapons. When
Vanguard visited the Government House, some unexploded explosives suspected to
be bombs were seen in front of the governor and deputy governor's offices as
well as in front of the press unit.
In Onitsha itself, a number of vehicles including those belonging the state
government were either burnt or destroyed by the thugs who blocked the Onitsha
end of the Niger Bridge, leaving travellers stranded.
The Iyi-Agu Housing Estate serving as official legislative quarters was
cordoned off by mobile policemen who claimed they were there to secure the
place. The lawmakers who were trapped said they were held hostage as they were
prevented from going out or coming in. A member of the House told Vanguard on
telephone about noon yesterday that the lawmakers were held hostage. "I am at
Iyi-Agu now. I am trying to save my life, the place is under siege. We are held
hostage here, I am trying to see how I can leave the place. The situation is
critical," the legislator said.
Elsewhere, in Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area, Uba's local government
area, the thugs allegedly stopped PDP supporters from travelling to Awka for a
rally ahead of next month's local government election.
The motive for the terror was not immediately known but the state government
accused Chief Chris Uba's faction of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) of
instigating the mayhem. Chief Uba denied the allegation from Abuja. He said he
was not aware of what was going on.
Gov. Chris Ngige who was almost abducted by his political opponents last year
and forced to sign letters to the effect that he had resigned was holed up in
Abuja yesterday when the fresh crisis broke out. He accused the police of
setting the stage for the violence.
Media Assistant to the Governor, Mr. Fred Chukwuelobe, in a statement alleged
that the "arsonists belonging to Chief Uba's faction of the PDP in Anambra
State, early Wednesday, November 10, 2004 burnt down two radio stations of the
Anambra State Broadcasting Service (ABS). The arsonists are also burning
government cars. The official car of the Chairman of Anaocha Local Government
Transition Committee with number plate LG 002 NEN has been burnt. The driver
narrowly escaped being burnt in the car.
"Also, dozens of mobile policemen have besieged the official quarters of the
members of Anambra State House of Assembly, preventing members and visitors
alike from leaving or entering the place. The Speaker, Hon. Mike Balonwu, and
other members are currently being held hostage.
The House members are being forced to sign a document purporting that the
governor resigned on July 10, 2003. They are being offered financial
inducements to sign the document, failing which they will be shot.
"The development came as Chief Chris Uba and his group fine-tune plans to cause
confusion in the state and create the impression that law and order have broken
down and possibly get the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency."
Chukwulobe further said prior to the attacks, the Uba group announced on local
radio stations their intentions to hold political rallies in readiness for the
December 18 local government polls. He alleged that the group mobilised
students and road transport workers as well as some hoodlums to unleash terror
on the state.
But reacting to the allegation, the PDP chairmanship candidate for Orumba South
local government, Mr Izu Nwankwo, denied that the party supporters were
responsible for the attack, saying the governor and members of his group
planned the attack using the Bakassi Boys in a bid to create confusion to
forestall the smooth conduct of the forthcoming elections in the state.
"When we came out with our supporters this morning (yesterday) for the rally
preparatory to the council polls, on arrival at Aroma Junction, venue of the
rally, I saw fracas. We noticed that the Bakassi Boys sponsored by Ngige had
destroyed and burnt the podium and were shooting sporadically to scare us away.
We were told that the governor had directed that the rally should not hold.
They told us to leave the place or be ready to face the music. These Bakassi
men operating in several buses later drove towards the Government House where
we learnt they destroyed some property.
"The governor's aim is to prevent the December 18 election from being held, but
we are determined to make sure that the election is held and we are going about
it very peacefully. As you can see, our supporters are here conducting
themselves peacefully despite the threat by the governor's security men to
disperse us."
In spite of the tense situation in the entire state capital, the chairmanship
and councillorship candidates of the PDP went ahead with their rally at the
Aroma Junction with supporters from the 21 local government areas attending.
They sang and danced for hours in support of their candidates.
The whole of Awka was thrown into confusion by the development. However, anti-
riot policemen were seen deployed in strategic places in the town but their
presence did not stop the hoodlums from carrying out their acts as they were
seen driving round the city in their fleet of buses.
Hundreds of travellers passing through Onitsha and Awka were stranded and many
had to walk across the Niger Bridge in Onitsha to the other side.
At Government House, armed mobile policemen were seen towing away three buses
and some unnumbered new motorcycles abandoned by the hoodlums as well as some
government vehicles damaged during the attack. By the gate of the Governor's
Lodge at Amawbia, a police vehicle with about seven armed mobile policemen were
stationed to guard the place.
Following the invasion of the Government House by the hoodlums, workers and
security men comprising members of the Civil Defence Corp abandoned their
offices and scampered to safety. Some of them ran into the bush behind the
Government House while some ran to the AHOCOL area for safety.
When Vanguard called at the ANSIEC headquarters, the ground floor of the
building where vital documents for the coming election were stored was still
burning with members of the State Fire Service and the Red Cross Society
battling to put out the fire.
Narrating how the hoodlums invaded the commission, ANSIEC Internal Auditor,
Pastor Louis Okeke, said at about 9.45 am, we saw a convoy of cars numbering 15
to 20 occupied by young men who started jumping out with guns and immediately
started shooting sporadically into the building.
"As they were shooting, we ran out in different directions. I personally ran
towards the State Education Commission building but one of the invaders pursued
me with a machete but I out ran him into the Real Estate and he turned back.
Later, I heard a loud explosion, which ignited the building. The house burnt
for several minutes before the arrival of the fire fighters who tried to put
the fire out. Few minutes later, information got to the fire men that the
Government House was also burning, and they moved their equipment to the
place," Okeke said.
Meanwhile, the State Police Commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, embarked on the
inspection of the damaged public buildings but he was yet to speak at press
time. Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kolapo Sofoluwe, said the situation
had been brought under control, adding that policemen had been deployed to
guard public buildings.
Gov. Ngige accuses IGP, Police
Governor Ngige, holed up in the new State Governor's Lodge in Asokoro District
of Abuja, reacted yesterday to the violence that erupted in Awka, saying the
stage for the violence was set by the Police who had earlier moved in to disarm
and arrest members of the State Vigilante Services on the orders of the
Inspector General of Police.
The immediate past Caretaker Committee Chairman of the People's Democratic
Party (PDP) in the state, Chief Dan Ulasi, said the violence was precipitated
by Bakassi Boys (members of the Anambra Vigilante Services) who stormed Aroma
Junction where candidates of the party for the scheduled December 18 Local
Government elections were to flag-off their campaigns.
Speaking at a crowded press conference, Governor Ngige said: "I was woken up
this morning (yesterday morning) by calls from my officials at Awka,
specifically the Principal Secretary to the Governor and my Commissioner for
Special Duties, all saying that the State Radio Station at Onitsha had been
razed down by some unknown arsonists.
"About the same time that this was happening, that is, in the early hours of
this morning (yesterday), another group of people went to the Anambra
Broadcasting Station at Enugwu near Awka and set fire to the studio complex.
These facilities were all gutted by fire. I do not know the extent of damage,
but I am told that the transmitter at Onitsha was burnt beyond repairs. The
same goes for the studio and the studio at Awka underwent the same fate.
"So, I tried to get in touch with the Commissioner of Police to find out what
was happening. I got him and he told me that he learnt of that and that he had
sent his men down to the place to assess the extent of damage. After I finished
speaking to him, the Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Mr. Mike
Balonwu sent in a distress call to me that he and some members of the House had
been held hostage at the Assembly Village in Awka.
"I could not comprehend what could lead to that kind of situation. He said that
the mobile police Commander at Awka had sealed off the place and said that
nobody would leave the premises, but that they could only allow people in; and,
that if you went in, you would not come out.
"I put another call to the Commissioner of Police who assured me that he was
not just getting the news from the Speaker and he had asked for the Mobile
Police Commander to come and see him. The Director of State Security also got
in touch with me and confirmed all these incidents to me. He even told me that
he had got in touch with the Commissioner of Police because even the men he
sent there on a rescue mission were not allowed in to the Assembly Village.
"Ever since then, I have been trying to get in touch with the Inspector General
of Police. I had earlier on yesterday (Tuesday) when I got my Attorney
General's report-- a letter written by him to the Inspector of Police-- decided
on my own that I would see the IGP today (yesterday before leaving, because the
report had chronicled the build-up to this situation.
"As you all know, I was overseas. I was away for seven days and I just came in
last Sunday. The Attorney General's report showed that the men of the Nigeria
Police had invaded offices and dormitories of our State Vigilante Services men
and officers, impounding vehicles, seizing cutlasses and what have you. They
found no guns in any of those places.
It might interest you to know that the Anambra Vigilante Service is a security
outfit, which we established from the ward to local government to Senatorial
and to the state levels, all aimed at working with the Nigeria Police,
synchronizing the efforts with the Nigeria Police to point out who the
criminals in Anambra are and to point out also the robbers" den and areas where
the hoodlums are camped.
"They have been very successful in the last 15 months of my administration and
Anambra State has witnessed relative peace crime-wise. So, it is strange to me
that the same Police that worked with them would now go after them to start
arresting them and impounding their vehicles.
"But the Commissioner of Police made it clear to me that the order for the
arrest, for the raid, for the seizure of the government vehicles attached to
these men came from Abuja. So that was one of the reasons why I decided I must
speak with the Inspector General of Police before leaving for home today
(yesterday). This was my decision before all these other things erupted this
morning (yesterday morning).
"As I talk to you now, the hoodlums did barricade the Niger Bridge head,
setting bonfires on the roads, harassing motorists. Nobody is fighting them
back; nobody is touching them. Another gang came from Onitsha into Awka and
went to the State Independent Electoral Commission and burnt the place down.
They then marched to my Government House to go and burn the place down.
"As I talk to you now, I do not know what is the state of the Government House.
All these situations are worrying because I do not see how people who were
supposed to protect the citizens and their properties would sit akimbo or give
tacit support to arsonists and do nothing to stop them.
"So, I am around Abuja. I have made contact with the Office of Mr. President
and he is still in council and I am waiting for him to finish the Council
meeting so that I can go and give him a security report of what is happening in
my State."
He said during question and answer session: "My family is very important to me.
I have made contact with them and my children have been evacuated from school
to an unknown destination. I have not made contact with my wife yet, but I hope
they will be safe wherever they are.
"For the Police colluding with the arsonists, I do not have to go too far to
say that is the situation; otherwise, why did they dismantle a State Vigilante
Service, which was the only outfit I was using to protect these Radio Stations,
ANSIEC, my office and even my Government House and other public buildings?
"Police was withdrawn from me as Governor, according to them, in partial
fulfillment of a court order, but police was withdrawn from all public
buildings in Anambra and we have written, asking for Police to go back to those
buildings and till today, it has not been done."
Ulasi faults Ngige
At a separate press conference in Abuja former Caretaker Committee Chairman of
the PDP in the State, Chief Dan Ulasi, along with Messrs Jerry Ugoke, Harry
Oranisi and Ralph Okeke (all members of the House of Representatives from the
State), said that it was the Government of Anambra that masterminded the
violence in the Awka.
According to Ulasi "unfortunately, I have been part of this tragedy in Anambra
State for 17 or 18 months or thereabout and therefore I am an insider by
anybody's stretch of imagination. I was part of the Committee that finally
produced the list of candidates that would run for the Local Government
elections in Anambra State. Chief Audu Ogbeh headed that committee.
"When he was absent, he delegated his Deputy (South), Chief Shuiabu Oyedokun to
head it. The National Publicity Secretary, Venatius Ikem was there; the
National Vice Chairman, Nze Ozichukwu was there; Dr. Chris Ngige was there;
Chief Chris Uba, a party chieftain was there and I was there.
"So, we finished it. By the time we went back, he looked at the list and said
no, these are people who are supporting Mr. A or Mr. B. I told him no, that
these are PDP candidates who had had won their primaries and should be allowed
to run their elections.
"The reply of Gov. Ngige was that the list published by the PDP was a 419 list,
which unfortunately the PDP NWC had taken any decisive action to sanction Gov.
Ngige for referring to the list published by the National Secretariat as 419
list. I think that was the highpoint of anti-party activity."
He said that Governor Ngige and his government wanted to scuttle the conduct of
the December 18 council elections, hence the step taken by their sponsored
hoodlums to stop the flag-off of the party"s campaign yesterday in Awka.

   

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