We’re about to start vigilante group – Imo
Other states should emulate us – Anambra
Southeast security outfit, Ebubeagu
Governors of the Southeast states have come under severe criticism for failing to actualise Ebubeagu, a security outfit they mooted to tackle insecurity in the region.
The governors of the five Southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo in April unveiled the new security outfit to address the deteriorating security situation in the region.
A communique issued at the end of the meeting held in Owerri, the Imo State capital, read in part: “That to fast track crime-busting in the Southeast, the heads of security agencies have been mandated to draw up a comprehensive list of their logistics and material needs for sustainable success in the fight against criminality, for the immediate provision by the leadership of the Southeast.
‘That a committee made up of security personnel, government officials and relevant stakeholders be set up to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Southeast joint security platform.
“The meeting resolved to maintain a joint security vigilante for the Southeast, otherwise known as Ebubeagu.”
Four months after the announcement was made, four of the states are yet to begin the process of floating the security outfit. Ebonyi remains the only state that has established the outfit.
The Executive Director of Igbo National Movement (INM), Barrister Anthony Okolo, said only the Southeast governors and state assemblies were in a better position to tell Ndigbo why the security outfit has not been implemented months after the governors met and approved of the project.
He believed that the governors do not have the political will to make Ebubeagu a reality.
He said: “Only the state governors and the state assemblies can tell Ndigbo why this urgently needed element for the security of Alaigbo has not been implemented. To those of us on the outside, it seems that the political will to make Ebubeagu a reality is not there.
Many of these governors fear the potential of clashes with these herdsmen who seem to have the approval and protection of the federal armed forces. To have a security outfit challenge the bandits will likely lead to a conflagration between the state security forces and the federal forces, and we all know what that will mean for security in Alaigbo.”
The Nation
