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‘Boko Haram prisoners’ transfer ignored safety of community’

By Chucks Collins, Awka
27 July 2015   |   1:15 am
What is your reaction or concern on the reported presence of Boko Haram convicts in the prison in your community? We are all very worried, especially because the prison is not a maximum security. We may not be able to dictate to the Federal Government, but we believe that such things are usually done with…
Maduka

Maduka

What is your reaction or concern on the reported presence of Boko Haram convicts in the prison in your community?
We are all very worried, especially because the prison is not a maximum security. We may not be able to dictate to the Federal Government, but we believe that such things are usually done with the safety, peace and liberty of the citizens in mind always.

Today, our old parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters, as well as all our rural folks and relations live in great fear of bombs, jail break and social unrest.

Why all the trepidation and despair?
Most families in this part of the country have lost one or more of their members in the hands of these same Boko Haram people in the North. Some lost every means of livelihood they had having lived there all their lives. The insurgents destroyed their houses, businesses and all other commercial investments. Some lost their fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, children or other relations to Boko Haram. Some families have been permanently destroyed. So, you can imagine how a person like that who may have been maimed feels when the same murderous gang is brought to live in his native town and village. Our people no longer sleep with both eyes closed. We want them moved away.

We discovered that there is argument over the land on which the prison stands?
The land is not in any way in contention. The land has an official survey plan and was previously owned by Obinato and Umuagu families, both of Aku village in Ezinifite community. I am the community’s President-General and I know what I am saying. Anyone who is laying claim to anything should produce the relevant documents.

It was these two families that gave out the land. They presented it to the Federal Government through our late monarch, Igwe Stephen Offomata. The gesture was with good intention. Unfortunately no form of compensation or gratitude has come from this outstanding gesture. Rather, today they brought Boko Haram to our doorsteps. How does anyone think these families and their offspring feel now?

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