Agony of poor policing

SIR: The spate of burglary in rural communities is compounding the plague of poor folks and the anxiety of city dwellers who have to lock down their village homes after each visit. Life never leaves one with an easy choice. If it is not one thing, it is another. Residents of Anambra State have been living happier since the excellent effort of Governor Willie Obiano to drastically cut down the high incidences of kidnapping. Atmosphere of security has prevailed in the state. Of late, it appears criminals have reverted to old time burglary.

Efforts by government to focus on wiping out kidnapping might have inadvertently opened a hole for burglars to sneak through. Perhaps, it is celebrating the success of reducing incessant kidnapping so soon that allowed security operatives to move their eyes away from vigilance on other crimes. For whatever reason, a reassessment of the process is needed for calibration of security measures in rural areas.

The horrible experience of a woman in one of these communities draws the deplorable state of burglary to heart. She lives alone. Her children are grown and living out of the house. Her husband lives in the city where he makes a living driving Keke Napep (tricycle). The burglars visited her house twice within a four-day interval. They ransacked everywhere and littered her property as if sheets of papers were shredded to tiny bits on the ground. The vacuum in protecting the poor in rural areas is disturbing.

Transitioning in many rural communities is bringing new residents who are not indigenes. The old method of natives securing their villages is no longer effective. Most of the civil defence men are aged and not capable of surmounting the wave of burglary activities. It is scary that villagers have no one to protect them, especially, at night. I hope the government would increase community policing in rural areas.

• Pius Okaneme,Umuoji, Anambra State.