Anambra State Commissioner of Police Aderemi Adeoye has said that five out of seven local government areas in Anambra South Senatorial Zone have been freed from the grip of insurgents.
The commissioner, who spoke to journalists in Awka on Friday, said while the command is working to totally end terrorism in the state, it is being tactical in the fight to avoid collateral damage. Adeoye said the command has deployed tactics that are helping it gain ground against insurgents.
He said: “This insurgency problem is not against non-indigenes as people think. They kidnap their own people and ask for ransom, and if you don’t pay, they kill you there. Ninety-five per cent of their victims are their own relatives. The other five per cent are travellers who, due to a lack of knowledge of the area, run into them. Our advice is to always use the expressway.
Speaking further, Adeoye said: “We are working to gradually reclaim all these areas that the insurgents have turned into their hideouts because of natural forests, harsh topography, difficult terrain, and others. They take refuge in that place and launch attacks from there, but now it is very difficult for them to launch such attacks and come out alive.”
According to him, all seven local government areas that are in Anambra South were once under the control of insurgents.
“But now other parts of the state are safe except Nnewi South and a few areas in Ihiala. So out of seven local government areas, we have reclaimed five, and we are working on liberating the remaining two. Incidentally, those two have links to Imo. It got so bad that even their traditional rulers fled the communities,” he explained.
The Commissioner of Police asserted that the activities of the insurgents have been checked to a reasonable extent.
