MORE facts have continued to emerge on the relocation of high security Boko Haram suspects to the Federal Prisons in Ekwulobia Anambra State on Sunday, June 28, this year.

The planned arrival of the first batch of 47 suspects, according to Governor Willie Obiano, was a decision taken in 2012 between the then governor, Peter Obi, and the administration of then President Goodluck Jonathan.

Panic, despair and anger have gripped the people of Ekwulobia and the entire state since the arrival of the suspects was confirmed, as residents in the immediate neighbourhood remain very apprehensive of possible attack and bombing by members of the sect.

Not even a constant public announcements by the governor on government-owned media, assuring the people that extensive consultations were ongoing and all relevant authorities concerned were being reached with a view to reversing the arrangement could assuage the disconsolate peace-loving Anambra residents.

The Chairman of Njikoka Council, Chief Emeka Onuorah, told journalists in his office recently that he was shocked beyond words that the federal government could contemplate bringing such suspects to the state, more so as the state has no security prisons for such suspects.

Saying the decision was not well thought out, Onuorah urged the authorities to consider moving them out to places like Ita-oko or Kirikiri Prisons.

He feared that someone might be playing smart and mischievous.

Many had earlier accused Obiano of tacit approval and support for the situation, arguing that he ought to have initiated moves to halt the transfer long before it was carried out.

A university lecturer and legal consultant, who pleaded anonymity, said that the governor’s almost belated public statement and failure to address the people since the news broke on Saturday, June 27 actually fueled the belief of the President Muhammadu Buhari government that he could be behind the widespread protests against the action.

He noted that it was inexplicable for a state governor and chief security officer to wait for so long to speak up on an issue that bothers directly on the safety of lives and properties of the people.

Another statement from his media aide, James Eze, said when the governor got wind of the plans for the movement of the prisoners, the governor had quickly swung into action and contacted the relevant authorities to seek clarifications on the matter after which he raised several objections to the plan.

Among many objections said to have been raised by the governor were that Anambra has been one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria in the past one year under his watch and that the arrival of these criminals in any part of the state would disrupt this peace and lead to a new regime of a different kind of fear in the state.

In addition, the Ekwulobia Prisons is not a maximum security prison and therefore not suitable as holding place for suspected terrorists, as global experiences show that terrorists and terror suspects are kept in strongly fortified and isolated places, to which Ekwulobia Prisons does not fit in.

Other issues were that Ekwulobia Prisons, which has a capacity to hold 85 inmates, currently holds 135 inmates and therefore no room for more, more so as lack of space presents a high possibility for the radicalisation of other inmates by the Boko Haram suspects.

He also felt that unlike other locations where terror- suspects are held in sparsely populated areas, which make their isolation from the people easy, Ekwulobia is a densely populated town and there is a very high risk of contact between these suspects and the civilian population, with an avoidable danger.

Also, that the relocation of these prisoners to Anambra may not have paid adequate attention to the sensibilities of the country, especially the fact that some ethnic populations have suffered the most from the activities of these suspects across the north.

Eze said his boss, to establish this understanding and achieve a speedy and peaceful resolution of the matter, went to the highest authorities and was given assurances that the matter would be looked into, with a view to resolving it with dispatch.

With these assurances, he added, the governor worked assiduously to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order during the peaceful demonstration staged by traders across the state on Saturday, June 27, against the relocation of the inmates and he has continued to engage the relevant authorities on behalf of Ndi Anambra to ensure an amicable resolution of the issue.

He, therefore, urges Ndi Anambra and Ndigbo in general to remain calm and avoid anything that might lead to a breach of the peace, as the matter was being resolved at the highest level.

However, besides these administrative cum media stunts, another aide of the governor, (Senior Special adviser on Political Matters), Mr. Chinedu Obidigwe, stressed that the “decision to bring in the convicts was taken during a seminar organised for officers and men of the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS), in which Ekwulobia and Kuje Prisons in Anambra and Abuja, respectively, were chosen as their holding places.

He pointed out that the transfer of such suspects would have been effected immediately, but for this year’s general elections and the effect of such transfer on Jonathan’s second term ambition in the Southeast.

He, therefore, argued that Obiano be spared the blames, as the decision was made under the nose of the past administrations at the state and federal levels.

The prison vicinity and major cities/markets in the state have erupted in a widespread street protests extending as far as Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi, Ogidi, Nkpor, Obosi and Ekwulobia.

As the issue continues to attract comments from resident, none of the members of the National Assembly from the state was ready to comment on the issue.

An executive member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, who pleaded anonymity, told journalists in Onitsha that he had prayed for the news to be a mere ruse.

He feared that with the action, the lives of members of his party and their families in the state and indeed the Southeast would be in danger.

“This cannot be the type of change we asked for; it cannot be the type of life transforming changes in our contemplation when we went to canvass and fought for the party in this zone.

“I wish it were not true…,” he bemoaned.

An industrialist, publisher and philanthropist, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, said the action was capable of causing national chaos and social disharmony.

He stressed that the cohabitation would pollute their mindset of those in prison who have committee civil offence and are awaiting trial or sentencing.

Ezeemo feared that mixing such religious hardliners with minor offenders would only indoctrinate and radicalise simple minds among the inmates, rather than reform them.

He, therefore, called on the federal government to have a rethink, especially as the relocation could breed bad blood in the minds of the Igbo.
United States-based Dan Iloani posted: “Why is the federal government of doing everything they can to heat up the system in Nigeria?

“Why relocate the Boko Haram prisoners to Southeastern states? Has the President forgotten all the Igbo the Boko Haram massacred in the North? Well, Ndi Igbo have not forgotten and we must never forget.”

Mrs. Theresa Obalokwu, an Nnewi housewife, saw the relocation as “reprehensible, inciting, evil and a slap on the faces of the thousand families of the Southeast that lost their loved ones, children, husbands, and or wives in the hands of these mindless people.”

Mrs. Obalokwo lost an in-law from Adazi-Enu in the Mubi massacre and no form of assistance or compensation had ever come to the surviving widows, children or families of the victims, whose lives were mindlessly cut short, properties, houses and other properties destroyed for no reason.

To her, “any plan to bring prisoners down to our communities would simply mean that the federal government has written and is already acting out a script on confusion and disintegration of the country and should take absolute responsibility.”

One of the traders in Onitsha, Nnewi, Agulu, Nkpor, Awka and Ekwulobia area, who spoke to journalists on the issue, said: “It is evil for anyone to device this agenda and this now clearly show that there are persons in Nigeria today whose stock in trade are divisive tendencies and programmes.

“Look at the new administration that has done no single meaningful thing in over one month displaying what is in store for peaceful locations in the country by distributing terrorists nationwide.

“It won’t be surprising to read about the distribution of Boko Haram to all parts of the country as part of Buhari’s achievements within his first 100 days in office.

“Up APC, up change, up Buhari…,” he noted.

Apart from the first batch of convicts, a source said more were been expected be relocated to other parts of the country once the current outcry dies down.
But there are indications that the current protest against the relocation of convicts to Anambra might stall any further exercise.Already, Obiano has told Anambra people, after a meeting with relevant federal authorities, that the convicts brought to Ekwulobia would be yet relocated out of the state.