[ABIA] Assembly meets Security Heads, says laws must be implemented

It would be recalled that the State House of Assembly had last week passed a resolution inviting heads of all the security agencies in the state to an interactive session on the security challenges in the state to find a lasting solution to them.

Speaking to Newsmen at the end of the closed-door meeting at the Assembly Complex, the Deputy Speaker of the House and Chairman House Committee on Information, Rt Hon. Ifeanyi Uchendu said while the state is not against any law-abiding individual carrying out their lawful activities in the state, the 7th Abia House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt Hon. Engr. Chinedum Orji will not support the situation where some people will under any guise pose a threat to the lives and or property of others.

The Deputy Speaker further stressed the need for people to get themselves properly acquainted with the laws including that of the "Control of Nomadic Cattle Rearing and Prohibition of Grazing Routes and Reserves", which was passed by the House in 2018 and assented to by the Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, and strive to keep by them adding that nobody has the right to take the life of others or destroy their property.

Rt Hon. Uchendu assured the State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and the security operatives in the state of doing all within their powers to support them to succeed. He warned all criminal elements and trouble makers in the state to desist from their nefarious activities or leave the state as the state would no longer tolerate anyone who poses a security threat to Abians and others living in the state.

Reacting on the issue of the incessant clashes between farmers and herdsmen in parts of the state, the Deputy Speaker called on all involved not to take laws into their hands as the interactive session with heads of the security operatives is part of strategies aimed at arresting the situation.