Abia destroys 160 brothel rooms over insecurity

• During a press briefing in Umuahia on Monday evening, Navy Commander MacDonald Uba, the Security Adviser to the state governor, made this announcement
  

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The Abia State Government (ABSG) has transformed the cattle market at Lokpanta in Umunneochi Local Government Area (LGA) into a daily market without residential facilities.

This decision aims to address the rising insecurity concerns along the Lokpanta-Umunneochi-Uturu axis within the state.

During a press briefing in Umuahia on Monday evening, Navy Commander MacDonald Uba, the Security Adviser to the state governor, made this announcement.

He further revealed that the state government had taken a step to demolish a total of 160 rooms in the market suspected to be used by kidnappers and other criminals.

Uba spoke on the heels of allegations that the state government had asked the traders, many of whom are not from the southeast, to leave the state, stating, “There is no truth in asking the community in Lokpanta to leave”.

Uba spoke on the heels of allegations that the state government had asked the traders, many of whom are not from the southeast, to leave the state, stating, “There is no truth in asking the community in Lokpanta to leave”.

According to him, “Unfortunately, we see rumour mills making the rounds that Abia State Government has asked the Hausa community to leave Lokpanta. This is untrue.

“Lokpanta-Umunnochi-Uturu axis has been under siege for over a year, even before this administration came in. Government has taken steps to contain the spate of kidnapping in that area”.

Recalling that the state governor had earlier launched ‘Operation Crush’ to stem the tide of kidnapping in the state, he said, “All Intel points to the cattle market at Lokpanta”, recalling also that the market started from the Garki area in Umuahia to Ubakala, and later to Okigwe before a former governor of Abia State provided Lokpanta about more than 15 years ago.

Kidnappers, he said, have been operating from that place, stating, “Unfortunately market dealers did not carry themselves very well and they allowed kidnappers to use the area as where ransom is paid.”

According to him, the traders extended the market into the median lane of the Okigwe-Enugu expressway “as tactics of monitoring (commercial) buses.”

“They use one of their buses to block the road, cause traffic grid, and allow the passage of a lone bus, and they will send information to others to rob the bus. We dismantled the supposed market in the (expressway) median”.

Three weeks ago, he said, “We carried out a deliberate, measured action there, and brothels numbering over 160 rooms were brought down, arrests were made and millions of naira were recovered.”