Group Condemns Insecurity In Akwa Ibom Communities

…Call For Govt Intervention

Amidst the growing spate of insecurity, banditry and other social crimes bedeviling the country, a pro-democracy advocacy group, 1001 + Voices for People Empowerment has called on governments at respective levels in society to be proactive in its constitutional commitment to protecting lives and property. The group stated that governments must immediately work to arrest the deplorable situation from worsening.

The International Coordinator of the group, Obong Ide Owodiong- Idemeko in condemning the increasing rate of insecurity across the country, has in a statement stressed that the latest threat to the peace and safety of lives and property occurring in pockets of communities in Essien Udim local government area of Akwa Ibom State remains widely condemnable in the light of the nation’s current security challenges.

In the statement issued by Executive Secretary to the group, Mr. Uwemobong Ankak, Obong Owodiong-Idemeko, condemned in very strong terms the many lives that have been lost to the mayhem including those of highly valuable security personnel who were needlessly murdered in the course of their legitimate duty of intervening to restore the needed peace in the nation. The statement also advised that such extremes should be avoided as no meaningful progress can be made in the country amidst a continuing atmosphere of insecurity and avoidable bloodshed.
In however appreciating the Akwa Ibom State government for responding swiftly to the clearly very worrisome situation, the statement said the reported incidence of internal displacement of persons in the affected communities has placed a responsibility on the government to take immediate steps and rise to the occasion of stemming the tide of the mayhem before the skirmish explodes into insurmountable crises.

Stating that there is no social justification for any form of crisis to mushroom amidst the nation’s expanding circles of communal violence, Owodiong-Idemeko noted that all zones in the nation have been overtaken and overwhelmed by one form of crises or the other. He further advised that governments at all levels should be extra sensitive to certain social and economic issues at stake; and should take a holistic step to commit everything meaningful to bring sustainable peace and stability to every community affected by recurrent crises of insecurity.

Advising those strong efforts should be made by various governments at all levels to expedite action at job creation, business support, and the impartation of lifetime skills through the leveraging of sustainable economic and social programmes to accommodate jobless youths in society, Owodiong-Idemeko in the statement requested the government to launch a robust and vibrant security plan to arrest the vicious situation haunting the entire country from breaking down and spiraling out of control.

He further urged the government to set up a diligent investigative panel on the Essien Udim crisis with a view to unraveling the remote and immediate causes of the mayhem, identify the perpetrators and ensure that all those found culpable in the social disturbance are duly brought to justice.