Insecurity in Abia state is Political

Despite efforts by Abia state government to combat crime situation in the state, the menace rages in geometrical progression. Barrister Uche Awah, the newly elected Chairman of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Aba Branch, in this interview, links the situation with politics.

You assumed the chairmanship position of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Aba Branch when there are multiple socio-economic issues to be addressed such as armed robbery, kidnap and other forms of insecurity. How do you intend to contribute to the solution of these problems?

The thing is that we have always at the Bar taken a stand on almost all these issues. The issue of banditry and kidnap and other vices, the Bar had cause, I mean my predecessor, addressed the press on these issues on several occasions. We also had cause to bring down the President of the NBA to Abia state to chat with the powers that be. He, also, encouraged them to take the issue of insecurity serious. So we have really never slept on that. And it is my intention to continue in that manner.

The important thing is that security of lives and property is a cardinal issue of the government. A government that is incapable of safeguarding property and lives of her citizens is not competent to be a government. And that is why we have been urging Abia government to take up these issues very serious.

The government said that it has done its best by providing vehicles and all that to the Police, but the important thing is to take the issue very seriously. In other places the governments are succeeding. Why is the situation different here? That is the question.

What do you think the government should do that it has not done to address the issue?

As far as I am concerned, it is not peculiar to Abia alone. But we can take a cue from Lagos. In Lagos, we heard that the government provided bullet-proof vests to Policemen. It also gave insurance cover to Policemen. Even if a Policeman dies on duty, he knows that his children are provided for. These are the major issues to be addressed. At least, that one has worked in Lagos. I see no reason why it should not work here.

Recently, Abia House of Assembly called for the redeployment of the Commissioner of Police and Director of SSS in the State. A new Commissioner of Police is deployed to the State, how do feel the move would help in the efforts of the government to fight crime in the state?

It is a commendable move. Our prayer is that the new Police boss would do his best to improve upon what he met. Our belief is that he would do his best to improve the situation he met on the ground. We should encourage him to continue.

Let me refer you to a comment you made in the course of this discussion that crime in Nigeria is a general thing. Should we attribute it to individuals or government factors?

The thing has a lot to do with politics. Until we are able to solve these issues, we may not have solutions. The people that are now armed robbers, kidnappers and all that were former political thugs of these politicians. These are the people they engineered during the electioneering. And you think that when you engineered and sensitized them, and get them to that level of killing without minding, when do you think you can abandon them. It is impossible. You abandon them to the detriment of the society. We are all suffering from the galvanization of these human beings during political tussles.

We have to address that issue. You cannot raise political thugs and when you will you think you can run away from them. You can only run away and unleash them on the society.

It is happening all over. As far as I am concerned, like the militants most of them are products of political usages. When you use them to climb you think you can abandon them. When you are using them you keep on feeding them, giving them money, giving them guns. When eventually you win you distance yourself from them. It is only the society that will suffer. That is my personal view.

A school of thought is of the view that amnesty should be granted to the criminals in Abia. Do you subscribe to this?

When you talk of bandits and robbers they are criminals. You don’t give amnesty to criminals just that way. The government granted amnesty the militants because their cause borders on issue of principle. You don’t grant amnesty to criminals. You have to really fight criminals. No society allows crime to go unabated without fighting criminals.