By Nathaniel Irobi
Governor Charles Soludo says Anambra State is the safest in the country, with no incident in the last four months.
The governor also revealed that the state has cleared over 60 criminal camps and restored normalcy to eight local governments that were under siege from criminal elements.
Speaking in a live media chat at the state capital in Awka on Friday, Soludo said the state had seen people flock for the festive season.
”It is safe today to say, Anambra, we claim to be the safest from all statistics, that within three to four months, we haven’t had any major incident of any sort.
”We had the best Christmas ever in decades this last Christmas with over 10,000 people visiting the city on a daily basis and so on and so forth,” he said.
The governor also said the sit-at-home order, enforced by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), that had long affected activities in the South-East, was no longer holding in Anambra.
He said schools, markets, factories, and public services had resumed normal operations.
”The sit-at-home is over, our schools and markets, factories and public services are back to work. The flights are back to Anambra on Mondays,” he said.
On the security architecture underpinning these changes, Soludo outlined institutional reforms his administration introduced since taking office.
These, he said, include new legislation targeting touting and cultism, and two newly created security outfits.
”So we had a new homeland security law, we created the ones on anti-touting, cultism, and a new homeland security outfit, Agunechemba, and a special intervention force, Ugodachi.”
Soludo painted a picture of the conditions he inherited in 2022, recalling that residents could not publicly display political party colours or drive branded vehicles without risking their lives.
Campaign activities during the 2021 governorship election, he said, were carried out under severe threat.
”In 2021, it was impossible for anybody to wear a political party’s paraphernalia or drive a vehicle around Anambra that was branded; you would be killed.’
“Some people were killed,” he said.
Despite the upbeat tone, Soludo, who was recently sworn in for a second term in office as governor, noted that it was nearly impossible to have a perfect security architecture.
“There is no place with over 100 per cent security,” he said. “It’s not a destination but a work in progress,” the governor added.