By Okechukwu Onuegbu
A chieftain of Labour Party (LP), Mr Valentine Ozigbo, Tuesday, said he was pained that Anambra State governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo had not only failed to address the senseless killings in the State but also turned the mourning period into what he described as moi moi eating session.
Ozigbo, who was reacting to the Sunday cult related killings which claimed about 20 lives at Nibo, Awka South Local Government Area, wondered why it took the governor 24 hours to even visit the scene of the killings which is very close to governor's lodge.
Factcheckng.com recalled that governor Soludo only visited the scene of the incident on Monday where he equally took a photograph as he was smiling and buying moi moi from a food vendor.
The former governorship candidate of PDP in Anambra State, described the scenario as unfortunate and mockery of Anambra's security architecture, and asked the governor to step aside as it appeared he has ran out of ideas.
He, however, commiserate with the families and victims of the 'senseless' killings at Nibo, noting that the bad news was shocking.
Ozigbo lamented:
" I received the bad news and I can imagine how the surviving victims and the families of the slain must be feeling now. I'm particularly pained by what happened last Sunday because it wasn't the first time such would happen.
"My pain is that despite previous attacks, those saddled with the responsibility of protecting us seemed to have been fiddling while Rome (in this case Anambra) burnt.
"Yesterday, Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, finally visited the scene of a disaster for the first time in several months. He was visiting a full day after 12 of his citizens were mown down by hoodlums at a shouting distance from where he lives.
"The attacks are an embarrassment to the state's security architecture which has been coming under scrutiny by many well-meaning citizens of Anambra State. That such could happen unchallenged very near to where the state's number one citizen resides is the height of the governor's failure to secure the life and property of his people.
"Even the governor's belated visit to a crime scene near his door is just as embarrassing, for it seemed as though he did that to fulfill all righteousness. To add insult to injury, he went there and turned a mournful and sober situation into a moi moi eating session, not minding the sensibilities of victims and their families. It is little wonder that the social media space is currently saturated by complaints from embarrassed citizens.
"But is anyone really surprised at the recent unsavory developments in the state? Since the coming on board of this regime, the state has witnessed a resurgence in the activities of agberos (touts) who have been enjoying unfettered freedom to carry out their nefarious activities in the guise of acting as the state government's revenue agents.
"Many of these agberos are known to be either living on the fringes of criminality or to be full blown criminals. Yet, they have become the beloved of the present government. It is, therefore, not rocket science that cultism has overrun the state as these people constitute the majority of cultists. This is so, so sad.
"The time has come to put an end to these unwarranted yet preventable acts of violence in our beloved state, which have discouraged our people and their friends from visiting, destroyed our once-thriving tourism and related businesses, and instilled daily fear and anxiety in our residents.
"The entire security infrastructure must be restructured to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and suitability for its purpose. If the Governor has now run out of ideas, he should step aside, for we CANNOT and WILL NOT continue to live like this."