The Enugu State Government has demolished structures identified as kidnappers’ dens on the outskirts of Enugu, the state capital, vowing that more will go down in its renewed campaign to rid the State of violent criminals.
Daily Query reports that Enugu, the Enugu State capital, and environs have been regularly attacked, in the past few years, by violent criminals who have kidnapped many citizens for ransom even as some have died in captivity.
Particularly prone to such attacks are vicinities on the popular Ugwuogo-Opi road constructed by the Sullivan Chime Administration in a bid shorten the 75km journey from the State capital to Nsukka, the university town, as well as to quickly offload the Abuja-bound traffic from the rest of Eastern Nigeria on to a shorter cut into the Enugu- Otukpo-Makurdi highway.
But despite the many police and army checkpoints on that road, kidnappers would appear to have made it almost permanently unsafe for travellers to Nsukka and Abuja, both in the day time and night.
The step by the mbah-led Government is part of a wider drive by Independence Layout to weed violent criminals out of the hitherto safe and peaceful Enugu State.
Among the properties identified as dens of kidnappers and demolished yesterday (Wednesday, August 21) were an uncompleted storey-building with an underground tunnel at Nkwubor Layout in Emene Nike where a large cache of arms and ammunition were recovered and a large farm housing a poultry, piggery, and plantain plantation at Ogbeke Nike all in Enugu East LGA.
At Nkwubor Nike, 17 firearms, including eight AK47 rifles, seven pump action rifles, and two short guns were recovered, while two AK47 rifles were recovered at the Ogbeke Nike farm.
In the process, shrines, charms, and mini Indian hemp farms were also destroyed.
After months of discreet investigation of the activities of kidnappers, security operatives were armed with enough intelligence to guide them to the two hideouts, where they stormed yesterday and rescued some victims after fierce gun-battles with the criminals, making those startling discoveries in the process.
It would be recalled that the Enugu State government had, in line with the Mbah Administration’s vow to eradicate crime and criminality in the state, announced its readiness to demolish properties being used for kidnapping purposes in the State, pursuant to Section 315 of the Criminal Code (Second Amendment) Law Cap. 30, Laws of Enugu State.
The said Section 315, which had been redundant since 2016 when it was so amended provides, “If the building or structure owned by the offender or any other person, who knows or ought to reasonably know that the building or structure is so being used for that purpose, the building or structure shall be demolished or forfeited to the State Government.”
Speaking to newsmen at the criminal hideout at Ogbeke, Nike, the Executive Chairman of Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, Uche Anya, said the demolitions were in compliance with the said law as directed by the government, stressing that there is no hiding place for criminals in the state.
“This government is determined to exterminate all manner of criminality. So, people were kidnapped and brought here, including the woman that was kidnapped near the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
“You can see the trouble we took to get here today. So, this has been ongoing. But after today, this place will never exist again in the manner you met it. That is why we are here to send a strong signal and we are also warning property owners not to come and tell us that they are in South Africa, China or Germany and do not know what is happening. Once your property or commercial entity is used for kidnapping or anything involving grievous bodily harm or threat, including attempted murder, we will come after you and your property,” he stated.
At Nkwubor, Emene, Nike, Anya told reporters, “The activities here were even more gruesome. You have seen the underground cell they built and covered it with a manhole. Ordinarily you will think nothing is happening there, but the eagle eye of the security in the course of doing their work detected that something was amiss, only to discover that there’s an underground cell where human beings are kept and we found their armoury, many AK47 rifles and other crazy equipment that no civilian is entitled to hold. But, today, it has to go down as directed by the governor in accordance with the Laws of Enugu State,” he said.
The ECTDA Chairman said the government would in addition take over the properties and put them to good use, noting that the demolition is an ongoing process as more structures were already marked to go down.
“So, all these places will be taken over by the government and we can turn it into a children’s playground, garden, park or primary health care. But whoever thought they owned this place before this hour will no longer touch their feet here again.
“Enugu State has an anti-kidnapping law, but beside that, the Criminal Code covers that whatever that deprives you of your liberty and leads to death is what the government cannot condone,” he concluded.
