A member of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Harrison Ogara has cried out over the recent kidnapping incident in his constituency.
Ogara, in a statement on Tuesday, blamed the development on inadequate security personnel.
He said only about nine policemen were left to protect 500,000 residents of Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area, his constituents.
According to the lawmaker, “I have just been informed about another kidnapping of eight people including a newly ordained Rev. Sister at Eburumiri Ibagwa Aka in Igbo Eze South LGA of Enugu States.
“More painful aspect of the story is that a young person who was hiding in the bush to evade the kidnappers was killed by the kidnappers' stray bullet while they were making an escape from the community.
“I get worried that our innocent people in the villages could be terrorised by bandits without any challenges from any security agency.
“It is quite absurd that the police in the LG are poorly equipped to take on, on this level of criminality. Actually, the big elephant in the house is that as at the last time I checked, the Divisional Police in Ibagwa Aka had a total of about 32 policemen attached to it.
“Out of the 32, about 16 were attached to VIPs while 7 were suffering from one ailment or the other, leaving just about 9 officers to take care of over 500,000 people in Igbo Eze South.
“This is absolutely preposterous when you consider that Igbo Eze South LGA is at the boarder between Enugu and Kogi States.”
“In the instant case, it is even more worrisome to note that the locals are suspected to be in cahoot with these bandits who ravage our otherwise quiet communities.
“I hereby call on police authority in the state to send more manpower and other logistics to support the DPO and his men to go after these kidnappers with a view to arresting and prosecuting them in a court of law.
“In the meantime, I empathise and commiserate with the affected families while assuring them that very soon, the long arm of the law must surely catch-up with those criminals,” he further stated.