The Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, during a monthly media parley at the Government House in Umuahia, claimed that over 80 bodies were recovered from kidnappers’ den in the state.
The governor, while giving an account, said that the security intelligence showed the ransoms paid for kidnapped victims were always dropped off around Umuchieze Cattle Market in Lokpanta of Umunneochi Local Government Area (LGA), adding that this was discovered after several electronic equipment were installed in different parts of the state.
He said, “We installed electronic equipment to find out what is happening in every part of the state. A few weeks ago, we found that a lot of the ransom that was paid for kidnapping ended up somewhere around Umunneochi LGA.
“We decided to dominate the place and what we saw was shocking. In less than 48 hours, we recovered over 80 dead bodies around the cattle market, and we recovered 20 headless bodies decomposing bodies, which include adults and children.
“We recovered uncountable skeletons of people who had been killed and left to decompose still around that axis,” he said.
The governor, while expressing the state government’s commitment to getting rid of all forms of crime in a state, saying ”no government succeeds in the face of insecurity”, added that the government would neither condone nor support insecurity in any form or manner.
Otti, while decrying different forms of crime such as gun running, prostitution, narcotics trade and heavy use of substances in the market, said that investigations were still ongoing to ascertain the people involved in the crime.
Otti said that this informed the decision of the state government to change the cattle market into a general market, adding that the state government had taken a step to secure the market by fencing it and issuing a directive for the market to be a non-residential daily market, which would open from 6:00 am through 6:00 pm.
Otti said in line with the government’s directives, the market would no longer be exclusively for selling cattle, but it would operate as a general market where other items would be sold.
“Now, some persons said that we had sent away the Hausa community living in Abia, but remember, when we saw the skeletons, we did not know which skeletons belonged to either Hausa or Yoruba.”
‘The spread of the false information led to a northern group issuing a quit notice to Igbo living in the North to leave and come back to the East.
The governor explained that a meeting was held with the group, during which explanations were given about the government’s intention.
“We challenged them that anybody that is not in support of what we are doing must be a criminal, then they saw reason with us and reversed themselves,” he added.
Otti said that the state government was desirous to maintain peace and stability to encourage the people of Abia to move about in the state, especially during the Yuletide, without any fear of harassment.
“I can assure you that Umunneochi is calm,” he added.
