•Ekwulobia Prison inmates plan protest
Original 135 inmates of Ekwulobia Prison in Anambra State may have a showdown with prison officials over alleged better treatment given to 47 Boko Haram members transferred there in the past two weeks.
Protests mount across the South East for the relocation of the terrorists.
Regardless, President Muhammadu Buhari, National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, and Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) Controller General, Peter Ekpendu, are not likely to comment on the controversy, according to findings by TheNiche.
It was learnt on Friday, July 10 that the Presidency has long weighed the security implication of speaking on the matter and decided that mum is the way to go until those stoking tension come to their senses.
Even as Buhari, Dasuki, and Ekpendu continue their dignified silence, believing the issue will die down naturally, Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, has disclosed that the jihadists have been moved from Ekwulobia Prison in Anambra State.
Umahi made the disclosure in Abakiliki on Thursday, July 10 to persuade traders not to stage further protests.
He did not disclose where they were relocated.
However, sources in Ekwulobia Prison insisted that Boko Haram inmates are still in the facility.
Sensitive nature of case
TheNiche was told by a highly placed source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs that “the sensitive nature of the Boko Haram saga makes it imperative that the Presidency keeps silent even in the face of the transfer, otherwise its comment may provoke more damaging consequences for the country.
“Any official who speaks on that very sensitive security matter does so at his own peril.”
Last week when TheNiche called Dasuki on the matter and even sent a text, he neither took his calls nor responded to the text message.
As if Buhari has also warned his aides from commenting on it, when TheNiche contacted his spokesman, Femi Adesina, on the position of his boss on the Boko Haram prisoners taken to Anambra he referred us to Ekpendu, who also declined to speak.
A source in the NPS warned Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnicity, against allowing politicians to use internal security matters to play politics for selfish interest.
He expressed regret that “those who ought to know better are the ones recruiting market men and women, some of who are ignorant about security matters, and using them to raise tension all over the place.”
The source said the rot in the system, including the prisons, could be responsible for the agitation over the transfer of prisoners, as expert advice was not sought before the exercise was carried out.
For instance, he added, the right thing would have been for a new facility to be built exclusively for convicted insurgents, as obtains in advanced countries where terrorism is an issue.
“High profile criminal suspects like Boko Haram insurgents require exclusive facility for effective monitoring,” he insisted.
According to him, one of the things the Buhari administration should do urgently is find out if money was approved for upgrading prisons like those in Ekwulobia, Ogoja, and Kuje to accommodate terrorists – and if such money was utilised by officials in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
South East governors agitated at their meeting in Enugu on Sunday, July 5 that the federal government should relocate Boko Haram prisoners from Anambra State.
Grouse over preferential treatment
No prison official offered to speak when TheNiche visited Ekwulobia Prison, but one inmate who has only a few months left to complete his term disclosed the plan during manual labour outside the prison yard.
“They keep them in a special cell and feed them with good meal. Since I came into this prison, I have not seen, let alone eaten, that type of food. I know that a plate may be cost about N800 and they take good care of them,” he said.
“What do the rest of us eat? Rubbish. Even access to medical services is difficult. But look at those Hausa people, they do not appear to us as those in awaiting trial cells. They are better relaxed even in the prison here in Igbo land.
“Some of us, especially those in awaiting trial cells, are not happy at all that the Hausa people are being treated better than us. Do not be surprised to hear of something happening.
“The prison condition here is not good yet some people are served as kings and they give them whatever they want.”
Fear of Boko Haram attack
Despite enhanced security in Ekwulobia Prison there are fears by some original inmates that a planned attack against Boko Haram inmates could snowball into a jailbreak.
The Christian community in Ekwulobia also lives in fear following rumour that Boko Haram operatives may strike churches in the town, as they do in the North.
However, the Anambra State chapter of the Christian Association Nigeria (CAN) has urged the public to remain calm.
State CAN Chairman, Tim Okpara, and Secretary, Moses Ezedebego, said the association is on top of the matter and people should not fear attack on churches and should congregate and worship on Sunday.
Okpara lamented that transferring Boko Haram inmates to Ekwulobia Prison poses a serious risk to lives and property in and outside the prison.
He said a peaceful and loving Anambra people cannot tolerate anything that will disrupt their harmony and cordiality.
Ekwulobia Peoples Assembly (EPA) President General, Ezike Chukwuemeka, and Anambra Association of Town Unions (ASATU) President General, Jude Okolo, warned that Boko Haram detainees could be in danger of reprisals by relatives of the victims of the jihadists in the North.
The Anambra State House of Assembly plans to hold a town hall meeting in Ekwulobia at the instance of the town’s representative in the Assembly, Ikem Uzoezie.
Markets shut in Awka, Onitsha, Umuahia
On Thursday, July 9, markets in Awka, Onitsha, and Umuahia were shut down at the behest of South East Markets Traders Amalgamated Association (SEMATAS) to protest the presence of Boko Haram inmates at Ekwulobia Prison.
Markets were also closed in Abakaliki.
The Ariaria market in Aba and Ekeonunwa market in Owerri were shut down on Friday, July 10.
SEMATAS President, Okwudili Ezenwankwo, argued that Boko Haram insurgents do not value human lives and the fear is that they may begin bombing in the South East.
He said traders learnt that most of those transferred to Ekwulobia Prison are Nigeriens and Chadians, the most unrepentant of the jihadists.
He pleaded with Buhari and Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, to return them to their original prisons.