HURIWA tasks Imo, Anambra governors on recovering ‘swathes’ of ungoverned spaces

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has tasked South east governors, especially Governors Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State to be up and doing and begin to build back burnt police stations and ensure the drafting of adequate numbers of armed security forces to secure extensive areas of their states abandoned by Nigeria police force for fear of unknown gunmen.
   
HURIWA in a statement by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko,  said the realities on ground in some of these flashpoints of the activities of armed non-state actors left alone to operate at will is that in a lot of these communities in Anambra and Imo State most specifically, armed security forces only operate on highways and within the state capitals, thereby letting a large swathes of these states to become desolate and exist as ungoverned spaces, thereby motivating all kinds of armed hoodlums,  kidnappers, armed robbers and terrorists to continue to terrorise residents.
   

“At the time of filing this report, his whereabouts are yet unknown, no call from his abductors and no ransom has been demanded. Those who reside in the east have been advised on viral social media posts to be extremely careful or better still, to avoid any unnecessary movement,” HURIWA said.
 
HURIWA recalled that in recent times, gunmen have unleashed a series of attacks on police stations in the South east with some of the incidents, leading to fatalities aside from wanton destruction of property.
 
The group specifically asserted that Imo State is now under the siege of five categories of terrorists, which include armed mainstream terrorists operating under deceptive guises, armed kidnappers for ransom, hired assassins, thieves riding on motorcycles specialised in robbing shop owners towards evening.