Agunechemba: New dawn in Anambra

…Residents heave sigh of relief as state govt gives criminals, accomplices run for their money

• But warn new security outfit to avoid Bakassi Boys’ excesses

By Enyeribe Ejiogu and Dickson Okafor

Soludo

A sliver of hope can now be seen in the sky over Anambra State, in the past few weeks since the Agunechemba (lion that guards the city) security outfit established by Governor Chukwuma Soludo, became fully operational.

• Ifeduba

For a long time, Anambra State, like the other states in the Southeast, had been in the vice grip of criminal elements, who operated freely in daylight or nighttime with so much boldness and swagger that left residents and visitors petrified.

Even the natives residing in other parts of the country were so scared to visit their hometowns.

 

• Okoye

Southeast people who could afford to engage the protective service of heavily armed police personnel spared no cost in doing so, just so that they could make very short visits.

Notwithstanding the close protection afforded by such private arrangements, a good number of dignitaries had still faced brazen attacks.

 

• Odogwu

One dastardly case was the attack on the motorcade of the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah in September 2022. Beyond this, there had been numerous attacks, abductions for ransom, rituals and armed robbery incidents.

Coupled with criminality perpetrated by people of Igbo descent, there were parallel criminal activities by heavily armed terrorists disguised as herdsmen who similarly engaged in brazen abductions along highways in the Southeast.

• Sarki

Insecurity dogged the steps of every resident, the rich and even the middle class.

For Governor Chukwuma Soludo, the precipitous fall in security began to look like the situation that confronted then President Goodluck Jonathan government over the rapid occupation of Borno and Yobe states by Boko Haram insurgents.

Something had to be done. First, the governor appointed Chief Ken Emeakayi as his Security Adviser, and then sent the Anambra State Homeland Security Bill to the state House of Assembly, which passed it into law.

Still working under the radar, as Sunday Sun learnt from Dr Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, a lecturer and media entrepreneur, who was recently re-elected Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Anambra State Council, the Soludo administration began assembling a security outfit.

“Agunechemba started operation around November 2024, but it did not have a name at the time. That was when the government was trying to operationalize it. The trial effort worked because there was a very high reduction of crime during December,” Odogwu said, adding that “this facilitated a massive homecoming for Yuletide festivities. I went to my village and I saw thousands of people who had not come home for years. The communities witnessed a beehive of activities all over. So, people returned and there was traffic jam everywhere, but because of ongoing construction of new roads everywhere, the government deployed traffic control officers to ease movement on the roads.”

While commending Governor Soludo for establishing Agunechemba security outfit, he implored him not to relent in re-establishing the authority of the state government over the forests within its jurisdiction, which have been taken over by criminal elements from the Sahelian nations who are aided by degenerate accomplices from certain parts of the country, to abduct law-abiding citizens for ransom just as they gruesomely kill some of the abductees, maim others as well as rape female victims.

Another Nigerian from the Southeast, who lives a relatively quiet life, Rev Festus Abone, advised the government to be steadfast in ensuring that the new security outfit diligently chases out criminal elements from the forests across the state, which have become ungoverned areas.

“First of all, I want to commend the state government for establishment of the security outfit even though it took time in coming. The state is being suffocated by the activities of these criminal elements.

“I expect the security outfit to burst their hideouts including the bushes and forests, fish them out, and deal decisively with them in accordance with the laws of the land. I expect them to restore safety and normalcy in all parts of the state within the shortest possible time.”

In the late 80s, the Bakassi Boys, a vigilante group exhibited an aggressive modus operandi, which focused solely on criminal elements and robbers. The group won the admiration and support of the people who were in awe of how their efforts led to the elimination of several notorious armed robbers while many others ran out of the Southeast. Looking back to those days, Abone said: “Operatives of the new outfit should be combative in their approach, instill fear in all criminals and would-be criminals as well as restore the confidence of the people to move about without fear of kidnap, shootings and armed robberies.

“I expect more of intelligence gathering in order to nip crime in the bud. Any building used by the kidnappers should be thoroughly investigated and if the owner is found culpable, it should be demolished instantly in accordance with the provisions of the Homeland Security Law of the state. Adequate publicity should be given to their work.”

To enable the outfit gain the support and buy-in of the general public, and thereby ensure success, Abone said the government should exercise caution to avoid using the outfit for political vendetta.

“This year is an election year and many neutrals may be wary of the real intentions of the governor. Therefore, the governor must ensure they are not used as political thugs as doing so normally ends up as a bigger problem for the society. The government should equally ensure that stray bullets do not kill innocent citizens. They should exercise caution in the use of ammunition and roping innocent people into crimes they didn’t commit. Officers and operatives of Agunechemba should avoid being used to settle personal scores, avoid brute and rash approach to those not yet found with incriminating evidence.

“People will love them more when they are seen to be patrolling both the cities and hinterlands, especially at odd hours of the day, heavily armed. The government should be very, very thorough not to recruit known dubious youths and ne’er-do-wells amongst them. Once communities see their bad boys among those expected to protect them, the high confidence would wane completely.

“Moreover, I think that the continued incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu may be related to happenings in Anambra State and in other states in the Southeast. Governor Soludo should speedily spearhead a meeting of South East Governors with President Bola Tinubu for the release of Kanu and equally request his cooperation to have a special anti-terrorism squad fully equipped to confront the insecurity in the Southeast,” he said.

Like many other natives of Anambra State, Dr Azubuike Nkala, a Mass Communications lecturer at Paul University, Awka, talked effusively about the efforts of the state government to improve security.

He told Sunday Sun via WhatsApp chat: “Governor Soludo is doing a comprehensive attack on criminal elements in the state. The new strategy adopted by the government is a marked deviation from the crude ways of the Bakassi Boys of yesteryears. The present one is more scientific and based on intelligence. The main thrust is key informants and surveillance. It is much more trustworthy and will achieve results.”

However, Nkala sounded a note of caution, advising the superior officers of the security outfit to exhibit maximum vigilance and closely monitor the operatives to prevent them from chasing with the hounds and running with hare, as an old English saying goes.

He explained: “Well it is to make sure that the state vigilante groups don’t play role double agents who will give information to the Security Adviser to the governor and at the same time serve as agents of kidnappers.

“To forestall this, the government should create secret squads which will be well paid to monitor the vigilantes. The government should also sensitize traditional rulers to deploy secret informants that will be monitoring buildings where suspicious movements and strange activities take place. The media should also be used by government to tell its own stories.

“In fact, the success recorded at Isiagu was achieved through keen observation of what was happening at local hotels where they sell dog meat. That was how the woman who supplied food to the kidnappers den was identified. So, community policing is what will ensure success in this matter and media reporting of all successful stories.”

Though Bakassi Boys of yesteryears won acclaim for checkmating armed robbers, many people had reservations about the crude and fetish way they conducted their security intervention activities.

People who witnessed those days when the Bakassi Boys carried out extrajudicial executions of alleged robbers arrested by them in the most inhumane manner, are also a bit disturbed that rogue elements among the operatives of Agunechemba may go off on a dangerous tangent and manifest the tendencies of the Bakassi Boys.

But Nkala was quick to dismiss this fear, in a WhatsApp chat with Sunday Sun: “Members of the new security outfit will not operate like the Bakassi Boys of old which had no formal, legal operational structure. There was no organized system of command and control known to law and government.

“The Bakassi Boys did anything they wished, how they wanted, and there was nobody to control them. They could go after anybody, arrest the person and behead the person. They would then publicly burn the body of that person at road junctions. That wasn’t how security outfit should be operated even though it struck fear in people and would-be criminals. The fear of the Bakassi Boys really reduced armed robbery, other crimes and criminality to a large extent.

“However, their excesses due to lack of control mechanism eventually turned the tide against their operation and it fizzled away. I believe the Agunechemba security outfit will not be like the Bakassi Boys outfit.

“So, I think the modus operandi is more professional, more in line with modern trend, more democratic and firm. The Deputy Governor is seriously in charge of the command apart from the Commissioner for Homeland Security and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security. There is a central command and control and there is local government command and control.

“They are moving and a lot is happening. I am not a security person, but because of my position as a journalist, I have some information that most people don’t have. I can tell you categorically that the government has done something unbelievable in the last few weeks of inaugurating Agunechemba security outfit. So many criminals have been flushed out of the forests. So many hidden camps of criminals have been discovered and shut down.

“Even those who are hiding criminality and those whose property were used for criminality are lamenting now because the new law erased everything. With the new law, anyone that is into crime or criminality is roping himself or herself into either death sentence or long jail term or property destruction. So, I will say that we are happy the governor has risen to this occasion and has taken the bull by the horns and God shall be with him and the security outfit to help restore sanity, to help restore dignity of a human being and to help clean the environment of wanting destruction and senseless killing.”

Move in right direction

Soludo’s move to secure the lives and property of Anambra residents and other Nigerians transiting through the state to other parts of the Southeast and the country has continued to attract commendations.

Legal practitioner and National Coordinator, Take Back Nigeria Initiative (TBNI), Abumchukwu N. Okoye, described the creation of Agunechemba as a move in the right direction, but said that it almost came late.

He noted that many worthy sons and daughters of Anambra State have been kidnapped or killed even after their families had paid ransom.

Some were returned to the bereaved families in body bags.

Okoye is pleased that Governor Soludo has activated Agunechemba to tackle insecurity in Anambra State.

However, he cautioned that the initiative must be devoid of human rights abuses as was witnessed in the days of the  Bakassi Boys, which held sway during the tenure of Chinwoke Mbadinuju as governor of Anambra State.     

On his part, National President, Advocacy for Transparent Governance and Promotion Initiative (ATGPI), Dr Uche Ifeduba, posited that the achievements Soludo will earn him second term in the November governorship 2025.

Dr Ifeduba recalled how he had been prompted by several Anambra State stakeholders, who kept asking him what the governor was doing about security. This fired him up to write a letter to the governor in September 2024, and proposed a seven-point plan, entitled “Ancillary Strategies to Combat Kidnapping in Anambra State.”

Ifeduba expressed joy that most of the suggestions he made to the governor were adopted and applied in the establishment of Agunechemba security outfit.

He said restoring security in the state would create a conducive environment for business to thrive in Anambra State, which is the commercial hub of the Southeast.

The prolonged insecurity pervading the state also affected other parts of the Southeast, leading to a downturn in economic activities and income generation.

He said that Agunechemba security outfit has raised the people’s hope of the return of safety and security in the system.

Ifeduba assured that Agunechemba will outperform the Bakassi Boys given that it is a community-centred approach and adaptability.

He outlined that there are about 177 towns in Anambra State, and on the average each town has eight villages. And each village has a security outfit coordinated by the town’s central security.

“The state government consolidated the local security operations in communities and villages with the establishment of the Anambra Vigilante Group (AVG), under the superstructure of Agunechemba, which is strategically positioned to galvanise all the security outfits in the state, it is hoped that very soon insecurity will be a thing of the past in the state.”

Therefore, based on the context, he believes that Agunechemba represents a reinforcement, restructuring and rebranding of the existing security framework.

The emphasis on community- approach and indigenous knowledge suggests that Agunechemba is an evolution of the existing structure, incorporating new strategies and methodology to address the increasing complex security challenges.

Despite the laudable purpose of  establishing Agunechemba, there is lingering concern that the security outfit may be used to intimidate opponents of the governor as was seen during the time of Mbadinuju, who governed the state from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2003 and created the  Bakassi Security outfit.

Unfortunately, the Bakassi Boys became the state government’s weapon to hunt down opponents and rivals.

Ifeduba dispelled such concerns stressing that Agunechemba initiative should not be compared to Bakassi.

Similarly elated, former Route Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the National Chairman, Coalition to Strengthen Democracy for Good Governance Initiative (CSDGGI), Christopher B. Sarki, commended Soludo for setting up Agunechemba security outfit and enjoined other Southeast governors to emulate him, to bring about lasting peace in the region.

The decision to create Agunechemba, Sarki noted, aligns with the call by the Chief of Defence Staff, urging states to set up vigilantes that will provide the military and security agencies information to track bandits.