The influx of people from different parts of the country, especially the South-East into Asaba, the Capital of Delta State, is gradually becoming a burden to the community given its rising tempo of crimes. This situation has led to the recent introduction of a measure of communal policing, which the traditional authority believes would help in keeping tabs on who is who, BRIDGET CHIEDU ONOCHIE and MONDAY OSAYANDE report.

When Mr Joseph Eboka, 50, an indigene of Asaba, Delta State, returned to the state from the North after a 10-year sojourn, he met a community that was not only fast developing but equally serene and secure.

The common saying that “East or West, home is the best” found expression in his life as he joined his peers in farming to sustain his family of five. However, the same cannot be said of Asaba and its neighbouring communities anymore. The influx of some criminally minded herders from the North, ritualists, drug peddlers, and youthful Internet scammers better known as Yahoo Yahoo boys has brought disorder to Asaba and its environs.

All these notwithstanding, Asaba’s most recent headache is the activities of native doctors, most of whom were purged from neighbouring Anambra State, following moves by Governor Chukwuma Soludo to rid the state of traditional practitioners that are allegedly involved in illegalities, some of them relocated to Asaba, where their activities allegedly contribute to worsening the security situation in the state.

But for Mr Francis Mordi, an indigene of Asaba, the dire security situation in the community could be linked to an earlier embrace of herders by former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, after they were sacked from Onitsha, Anambra State, by former governor Chris Ngige, for allegedly fostering a reign of terror, violence, and sundry criminal activities.

Ibori had received and resettled the northern livestock traders, in Abraka Market, which they allegedly turned into an arms cache. It didn’t take long before feuds involving the locals, security agencies and these Hausa/Fulani traders started even as the roots of many criminal activities were traced to the Hausa/Fulani settled there.

“Before we realised what was happening, kidnapping and pockets of violence began proliferating in the community, and this was what later forced the relocation of the Hausa/Fulani traders to Oko market, from where they also spread to every corner of Asaba and neighbouring towns. Today, helpless citizens are kidnapped daily in their farms while the government appears confused. 

“Recently, three kidnap cases were recorded within a week. In one of the cases, victims include a farmer, his wife, and two children. While others were rescued following payment of ransom, the man was shot dead before his wife and two children.”

A former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Emma Ejiofor, described as unfortunate the fact that local communities in the state, mainly comprising subsistence farmers, have been denied access to their farmlands over persistent kidnapping and assault.

“I got a report of a family that was kidnapped and when the abductors discovered that the man was a member of a vigilante group, they killed him. We are very unsafe in Ubulu-Uku. We have vigilante groups but even if we decide to mobilise them, the herders are better armed than our people. They move about with AK47s while our vigilantes use Dane guns and batons, which cannot be compared with heavy machine guns.

“This problem is not limited to Ubulu-Uku but is also prevalent in Aniocha North and the South Senatorial Districts of Delta State, respectively. There should be proactive actions against the activities of these people because they are not stopping at kidnapping alone. They are also destroying farmlands,” he said.

A member of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service, Mr Happiness Onyeogani, narrated how members of his group combed the bushes when a surge in kidnap cases was noticed but could not do much due to the limited fighting equipment at their disposal.

“We spent three days at a stretch in the bush following the immediate past kidnap incident. We returned after three days without anything to take care of our families. So, we need help from both the government and the people to be fully empowered to work.

“Also, we could not overpower the herders because we don’t have the kind of guns they have. They handle military-grade firearms, while we (hunters) handle Dane guns. It is sad the way these herdsmen are kidnapping and collecting huge ransoms from our people and still killing some of them.”

While Mr Anthony Ugbe, an Asaba indigene, expressed worries over the ever-increasing number of Hausa/Fulani herdsmen living in his town and how some of them constitute security threats to the locals, a political leader and social mobiliser, Mr John Freeman Chiadikabia, expressed the belief that like other major cities, development often comes with the influx of all kinds of people.

He added that beyond the proximity to the famous Onitsha Market, which has attracted businessmen from the South-East region to the state capital, the lack of space for expansion in Onitsha and neighbouring Anambra towns, and the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has contributed to the population explosion in Asaba town.

To address insecurity, particularly in Asaba, the Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN), declared ‘Operation Know Your Tenants’, a step initiated to monitor, and have ample information about every tenant in the town.  

Prof. Azinge noted that while the people are welcoming, hospitable, and highly accommodating, they cannot fold their hands and watch things unfold in a manner detrimental to their peace and well-being.

“But let it be on record that we support the government at all times in the governance of the state, but there comes a time when we will also be a little bit more proactive in what we are doing because whatever happens on this land affects us more than any other person.

“We are not strangers to the development across the Niger, especially in Anambra State, and the pointers are so clear that most of the people that are being dislodged or dislocated across the Niger are finding Asaba a haven. That is why we want to be more proactive, and I believe the government of the day will find that we are being supportive and will always take the lead when the need arises,” the Asagba said.

He added: “The little we noted about the Anambra lawmaker killed, who was recently killed, points to the fact that he was cleared in Asaba, the native doctors, and the shrine that harboured the kingpin in Asaba. It is not pleasing to our ears that Asaba will become the melting pot of the whole saga.

“Consequently, we have decided that there are certain things that we can do to ensure that there is peace and order in this land. First, we have banned the activities of Eze Nwanyi. They were unknown to us but have suddenly taken over the land with their activities. They seem to support not just the Yahoo Yahoo boys but also perpetrators of other criminal activities. So, we banned them and directed that all native doctors operating on this soil must be registered and regulated.”

With Operation Know Your Tenants, landlords are expected to have an inventory of their tenants because: “We want to ensure that all those who have crossed over with sinister intentions don’t find peace in Asaba. So, I want us to communicate this to all and sundry that henceforth, this Operation Know Your Tenants will continue in Asaba, and we will pursue it vigorously in our domain,” the Asagba maintained. One of the female native doctors operating in Asaba, Chioma Achumba, commended the traditional authority for sanitising the town.

“I support it because it is going to regulate the body of native doctors operating in the state by distinguishing genuine female traditional religious practitioners (Eze Nwanyi) from the fake ones. Some of the problems that we are facing as herbalists include quackery and underage practitioners, who engage in all sorts of criminalities in the name of herbalism just to make quick money. Some of us are called to do the job by the gods, while others do it simply for survival and get-rich-quick syndrome. These are the ones giving us bad names.”

She, however, decried the N20,000 and N50,000 registration fees charged by the state, imploring that the fees be reduced to N5,000 and N20,000 respectively, so that practitioners can comply.

Mr Azuka Odili, a traditional worshiper, also commended the Asagba for wading into the security situation in Asaba, stressing that the activities of native doctors required urgent attention.

He urged those not called by deities to quit the trade and return home. But a government official, who preferred anonymity, held that the prevailing narrative about Asaba welcoming some strangers while turning others back for suspected criminal activities remains a complex issue, especially as the Nigeria constitution allows for the free movement of people from one part of the country to another.

“It is obvious that the greater the number of people in a city, the tendency for increased crime rate and other social vices,” he said. Commenting on the security situation in Delta North, particularly Asaba, the Delta State Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads), Mr Charles E. Aniagwu, who also oversees the Ministry of Information, highlighted the state government’s efforts towards making the state safe for residents.

He said these include intelligence gathering, acquisition of security hardware and opening up some roads to grant security personnel access to the interior communities.

He, however, held that the federal government has a greater role to play in addressing security challenges confronting the country. On the activities of some unscrupulous Delta community herders who are unleashing mayhem, the commissioner blamed the federal government for its indifference towards the implementation of cattle ranching law.

“Government must be serious about ranching so that nobody comes into your forest or farmland in the guise of rearing cattle,” he said. While condemning the recent killing of alleged terrorists in Uromi, Edo State, Aniagwu said the incident would have been averted had the government hearkened to the cries of communities against the nefarious activities of herders. 

“The community would have possibly been pushed to the wall, and they took the laws into their own hands, which was unacceptable. But if the federal government had listened to the cries of these different communities, we would not get to the point where people would begin to take laws into their hands.”

The commissioner also linked the three million population of Asaba to the hospitality, economic viability, and abundance of tourism products. 

“A visitor to Asaba would be surprised at new estates, big hotels, and companies springing up. With all these in place, people will naturally come to work. In the same way, people migrated to Lagos because they wanted to work, they now have reasons to come to Asaba to work. And when they find the place viable, they beckon their relatives to join them.

“Several people also came from the North, not only because of insecurity in their different regions but also to earn a living because there is a lot of construction going on here. Workers are needed to construct estates, roads, and hotels.”