Bishop of the Diocese of Enugu, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Samuel Ike has decried the rising insecurity in the South East part of Nigeria, particularly Anambra State and urged the South East governors to rise and tackle the menace.
In his New Year message, Ike said: “Since the first week of December 2024, a retired Archbishop of the Anglican Communion and his driver were kidnapped in Anambra State and nothing has been heard of them to date. A Reverend Father was killed in the same Anambra State.
Bishop Ike also noted that the menace is adversely affecting other parts of the country and tasked the Federal Government to decisively confront insecurity for the progress of the nation.
“These latest incidences are wake-up calls for the governors of the South Eastern states as well as the joint security and Armed Forces to act up to their basic responsibility of protection of lives and property of the citizens.
“We call on the federal and sub-national governments at the state level and the National Security Defence and Intelligence Forces to be more honest and dedicated; focused and synergised in tackling this unacceptable, unsavoury and national image-denting monster that has seemingly remained the signature identity of Nigeria for years now.
“It is continuously decimating our citizenry, workforce and food security; drying up the raw materials and incentive for our few surviving industries and medium and small scale enterprises and fast eroding the Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), as well as bleeding our foreign reserves in the humongous amount spent on National Security and Defence.
“The hydra-headed persistent insecurity in the country had seemingly remained insurmountable to the combined efforts of our gallant security, Defence, and Intelligence Services and Agencies. The kidnappers, the bandits, and the terrorists (lately added in the fray are the Lakurawa terrorists, in Sokoto State) have remained unchecked in their lawless and rampaging activities.
“We repeat our call on the government to effectively deploy both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches; effective proactive surveillance and intelligence devices such as drones and others, to stem this ugly cancer in the life of the Nigerian nation.”
By Anayo Okoli – Vanguard News
