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By Chidi Nkwopara, OWERRI.
What you are about to read now, did not come into the reckoning, at the time I primed myself to work on something of state importance.
A completely different view was loudly playing in my head, until the ugly news of the burning of the High Court Complex, Orlu, by unidentified hoodlums, rented the air!
About 72 hours after unidentified hoodlums razed the court in Orlu, news filtered in that a Magistrate Court in Owerri, was torched! This time, the Bailiffs office was targeted. Exhibits, files and indeed, scores of very vital documents, were burnt.
After ruminating over the news break, which came in quick succession, I opted to tackle the issue of growing state of insecurity and arson, in the land.
These repeated and brazen attacks and damages, leave all careful watchers with a feeling that there may be countless, ignoble individuals, who are surreptitiously working very hard to bring Imo State and indeed, Nigeria, to a much lower pedestal than where we are at present.
Just this December alone, the three INEC offices in Orlu, Oru West and Owerri Municipal, as well as two Imo State courts in Orlu and Owerri, were attacked by the supposedly unidentified hoodlums, for an equally unidentified reasons.
Truth is that INEC has suffered no fewer than 50 attacks across 15, out of the 36 states of Nigeria, in three years. What appears most disturbing to all patriotic citizens is that Imo State, is topping the ugly chart with a staggering 11 incidents, between 2019 and 2022! This cannot be a good testimonial for the state and its people.
The information surrounding the burning of Owerri Magistrate Court was hazy at press time, but that of Orlu High Court complex, was not. Saturday Vanguard gathered that all the files, exhibits, electrical fittings and furniture, got burnt! It was a sorry sight.
This incident has automatically and stridently emasculated legal practice in Orlu Judicial Division. Lawyers and litigants will, for some time to come, have no court to do their matters, until a panacea is worked out.
Now, take a critical look at this truism: All these damaged, looted, vandalized or completely razed offices or establishments, are public properties, built with tax payers money. It will, with the spiraling inflation, require huge sums of money to replace the facilities, instead of improving on what we already have.
With this, the economy suffers. Unemployment hits the skies. Per capita income drops dangerously and because people must eat, all manner of crime keeps flourishing. Can you see how we jumped into our own Bermuda Triangle? What else can best be described as a disaster?
REACTIONS
A former Minister of Education, Professor Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, in a telephone conversation, blamed what the country is passing through, on what she called “gross failure of the family system and senseless consumption of hard drugs”.
Her words: “No criminal dropped from the moon. They all come from families. People were jubilant when these human beings were born. So, at what point did we lose them? How did they become criminals?
“Most parents lay very bad examples for their children. Parents no longer spend some quality time with their children. They don’t know what their children are doing or where they are at any given time. Peer group influence takes over. The result is what we are experiencing now.”
Again, the considered opinion of the President, Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, readily comes to mind here.
He opined: “One of our drawbacks as a country is that when tragic events occur, we often lament, and soon thereafter, move on as if nothing happened. We tend to wait for a disaster to awaken us to another period of lamentation.
“We are not proactive as a nation in facing challenges (like) flood disaster. Hence our fire-brigade approaches to issues that should normally require proper planning and preparation.”
Similarly, the Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Dr. David O. C. Onuoha, is not left out in the quest for a virile, strong, safe and economically stable Imo State.
He said: “We must do everything possible towards reclaiming our society, which is clearly drifting away from God’s original plan. The task of rebuilding and reclaiming a society that has obviously derailed from its mandate, is the responsibility of all and not that of the government alone. We should support and partner with government, in making our society, especially our dear Imo State better and safer.”
An obviously irked Anglican Archbishop lamented that life has become so cheap and the criminals are getting more brutal, adding that the rate of insecurity, violence and criminality in the South East, especially Imo State, was worrisome.
“We demand that all those who directly or indirectly perpetrate, encourage or promote any form of criminality in Imo State, should bow.
The Chief Press Secretary, CPS, and Media Adviser to Imo State Governor, Mr. Oguwike Nwachuku, also shared his view on the subject matter.
He said: “The growing acts of arson is madness. I would like to add that there is no other way of describing those setting government facilities on fire, whether in Imo State or any other state in country for that matter, as foolish fellows.
“If you are conversant with the psychology of mad people, you would realize that they hardly hurt themselves. In other words, their madness does not lead them into destroying their personal belongings.
“So, in the case of the fellows who are not mad per se, but normal and derive joy in destroying facilities they are co-owners, foolishness is an understatement.”
Making particular reference to the destruction of INEC offices, police stations or any other government facilities that serve critical functions to the people, the CPS said: “Those involved in the act are only undermining themselves, their own interests and the interest of the citizenry.
“In a situation where a federal government’s property in Imo State, like INEC office, is destroyed, the perpetrators are not just working to disenfranchise the people and deny them of the most sought after dividends of democracy, but they leave the government with the option of using the people’s scarce resources that would have been utilized to improve their lot via the provision of basic infrastructure and other services, to fix the damaged facilities.
“So, head or tail, the arsonist, without knowing the level of his tomfoolery, is the loser. It behoves those sponsoring the arsonists and the perpetrators themselves, to come to their senses because it is already late in the day to continue on that trajectory.”
IMO ELDERS COUNCIL CONDEMN ATTACKS
The Imo State Council of Elders has also condemned in the strongest terms, the attacks on the offices of INEC, across the country, describing it as “ callous, irresponsible, and unpatriotic”.
In the words of the Council’s Chairman: “No reason whatsoever, can suffice for anybody to contemplate burning down INEC facilities in the country.
“These constant attacks on INEC facilities could jeopardize our democratic process, particularly, the 2023 general elections. We cannot continue like this because it embarrasses and portrays our national image in bad light before the international community. We are civilized people, and must seen and regarded as such.”
POLICE REACT
However, some respite came much later, when the Imo State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Michael Abattam, issued a press statement, saying: ”Nobody threw explosive devices on the Court, on December 18, 2022.
“Rather, it is suspected to be an electrical fault that caused the fire incident in the Exhibit Room of the Court and was put under control due to the timely intervention of the Police and personnel of the Federal Fire Service in the State.
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