Abia State Government has denied the report that it directed Northerners who live and conduct businesses at the Lokpanta Cattle Market, around the Enugu-Umuahia-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway by Umunneochi to leave the State.
According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Kazie Uko on Tuesday, Northerners were described as the ‘second and third generations of Igbos” living in Lokpanta and so stated that no iota of truth in the report.
Clarifying the report, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Navy Commander Macdonald Ubah (rtd), stated that preliminary investigation points to the Lokpanta Cattle Market as a major hideout for all kinds of individuals involved in different criminal activities, including kidnappings, organ harvesting, armed robbery, and other violent crimes.
He further disclosed that ransom for kidnap victims around the Uturu-Umunneochi axis was paid in the market, a situation which prompted the government to, among other measures, carry out deliberate actions including the demolition of brothels and shanties in the market.
Briefing journalists on Monday at the Government House, Umuahia, Ubah, said that the stand of the government is that the market would no longer be residential, but a daily market. He maintained that the government’s decision to make the Lokpanta Cattle Market a daily market is in the interest of the citizens and the cattle dealers, adding that the government will not rescind the decision.
He told the media that he had on two occasions held meetings with the leadership of the market unions, where he informed them of the government’s decision to make the market a daily one for security reasons.
Ubah noted that the Lokpanta-Uturu axis of the state has been under siege by criminal elements in the last couple of years, prompting the major steps recently taken by the State Government to eliminate the spate of kidnappings and other criminal activities in the area.
Consequently, Ubah told Nigerians to disregard the fake news as there is no plan by the Abia State Government to evict Northerners from Lokpanta, and neither did Governor Otti give such a directive as claimed in the fake report.
