…Security concern Mbah must tackle
The Ugwuoba Cattle Market, Enugu State, has become a serious security concern that the Governor Peter Mbah administration must deal with in a hurry, writes Chidubem Okolie.
When the Ugwuoba Cattle Market was opened many years ago, the altruistic purpose was never in doubt – to provide a platform for citizens in and around Enugu and Anambra States and livestock dealers to meet their food and business needs.
Unfortunately, indigenes of Amansi, Awka, in Anambra State and Ugwuoba, who spoke to our correspondent, now see the place as a modern Sodom and Gomora, given the criminality, illicit drugs, prostitution, and other vices that now thrive at the market and its environs.
Surprisingly, whereas the holy book, in John 3:20, says, “everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed,” the evildoers of Ugwuoba are not afraid of the light. Go to those shanties in the suburbs of the market at any time of the day and you are sure to buy illicit drugs such as methamphetamine (‘Mkpuru mmiri’) and cannabis also find other like minds consuming their illicit stocks with reckless abandon; and for as little as a few wads of hundred naira notes, you could buy sex at every corner of the market’s vicinity.
But Ugwuoba Cattle Market, also known as Garki, and its environ have not always been like that. Vice Chairman of the market and an indigene, who represents the Amachala family, owners of the land on which the market was sited, Mr. Shedrach Ezeani, highlighted some of the factors fanning the embers of criminality in the area.
His words: “I represent the Amachala family, owners of this place, in the Gariki executives. We are here working together with the executives and the market authorities.
“The issues we have in terms of security is that there are too many hoodlums around this Gariki. Our chairman tried many times, through the local government, to at least reduce them. But people from outside Ugwuoba come in and reside by the side of this market. That is the problem we are facing here.
“From 2004 we used to collect rent around Gariki suburb, not the main Gariki. We didn’t have problems then. But some years later, some boys said they don’t want family owners of the land to collect the rent and they said let every individual manage his own portion of land. So, many started giving portions of land to unknown persons. From then, hoodlums gathered around there.
“Government should come in because the Gariki Market does not have the capacity to do this. If you ask anybody, he will tell you that this is my father’s portion of land. Those shanties and unregulated lodges are not doing good for this place. People hide there in the name of Gariki and do all sorts of things. They invite lodgers from unknown destinations. Criminals will join them to lodge. That is the problem we are having. The government has to take action and control them.”
His perspective is not any different from that of the Chairman of the market, Abubakar Yusuf Sadiq, who also traced the criminality in the area to illicit drugs and prostitution. The other is caused by locals, who indiscriminately sell or lease lands to unknown person to build lodges and shanties where these criminals hibernate.