Army issues red card to criminals in South East, assures of peace in the region
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Nigerian Army has restated its resolve to end all incidences of insecurity in the south east geo-political zone and restore peace in the area. To that effect, the new General Officer Commanding 82 Division, Enugu, Major General Hassan Dada, has vowed that all non-state actors will be pursued and all forms of criminality stamped out in the region forthwith.
Dada made the disclosure during a familiarisation visit to Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State at the Government House in Owerri, the Imo State capital, having just assumed his new office as the GOC 82 Division.
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The new GOC, in his address, said his major assignment in the South-East was to stamp out criminality and put an end to all the barbaric killings in the region as directed by the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army.
According to him, the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja, has given him a marching order to end insecurity in the South-East without further delay.
While emphasising that his team would do all it takes to ensure that peace returns to the South-East, he appealed for the support of the Imo governor and indigenes of the state to achieve this feat.
In his remarks, Uzodimma reiterated the need to restore peace and put an end to insurgency in the South-East.
He also spoke on the negative effect of the illegal sit-at-home orders as well as the need to extradite the Finland-based separatist agitator, Simon Ekpa, promising the new GOC and his team his support and that of the people of Imo State.
The threat by the Army came on the heels of a handwritten letter, said to have emanated from the detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IOPB), Nnamdi Kanu, directing Ekpa to desist from declaring further sit-at-home in the region.
The south east has been in the news lately over the activities of secessionist agitators and faceless criminals operating under the cover of the so-called unknown gunmen. In their murderous campaigns, lives and property have been lost. The economy of the zone has been destroyed chiefly by the weekly Monday sit-at-home, which has paralysed economic activities in the area.
