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A female trader in one of the local markets in Amakohia-Ubi (Eke Amakohia), Amarachi Ikwuagwu (Not real name), has lamented the plight of indigenes of Amakohia-Ubi in the Owerri West Council Area of Imo state, who she said, live daily with the fear of annihilation due to the activities of bandits in the area.
She accused the Imo State government of abandoning the people of Amakohia-Ubi to rampaging kidnappers and bandits who seem to have overrun the community and its local security.
Ikwuagwu said: “For so long our community has been under the siege of all manner of bandits and kidnappers with the security agencies evidently unable to help our people so far.
“This always prompts us to wonder if indeed we are still part of Imo state with the disturbing silence and seeming inaction of the government over our plight.”
Ikwuagwu who bemoaned the fate of her people told this platform that not even the Christmas or New Year was celebrated in peace in Amakohia-Ubi.
Amakohia-Ubi which is less than 20 minutes to the state capital, Owerri, is the same community where a mother and son were killed recently by kidnappers after ransom was fully paid.
Lamenting their plight, Ikwuagwu said:
“For as long as I can remember, my people have been living off the produce of their farmlands. My granny used to go to the farm by 4am and return by 7-8pm when she was alive.
“The young men of my town make a living from it; they work jobs at these farms to pay their bills and take care of their families.
“The situation has become so bad that last year when corn was in season, I couldn’t even get a single cob from my aunties in the village as was the case in previous times. They said they no longer go to their farmlands to cultivate or tend to their crops for fear of their lives.
“I know a widow who trained all her kids from the small cassava crop she was producing from these farms. That was before things went out of hand.
“Today, stories of women being raped and men being killed have become rampant and most of these ugly incidents go unreported and undocumented. I heard of one who went to his farm last year and was shot dead in his farm, for doing nothing! It’s truly so sad and frustrating knowing that the security agencies have been unable to do anything for my people as government seem absolutely uninterested about our plight in Amakohia-Ubi”.
Amarachi Ikwuagwu added: “I remember sometime in 2019, when these bandits, mainly northern herdsmen, were newly entering the village with their cows, boldly destroying crops and refusing to leave, a few of our leaders went to report to the government but it all amounted to nothing.
“It got progressively worse over the years. Today, my people no longer walk freely in their lands. It is gruesome to have a government who seems not to care for its people in such harrowing time as this.”
