Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia has said that tackling kidnapping and other social vices in Umunneochi Local Government Area (LGA) is a challenging one that demands wisdom.

“The work at hand is not an easy one, but I advise that everything that is done concerning this matter is done with wisdom,” Mr Ikpeazu said.

Mr Ikpeazu said this on Friday during a stakeholders’ meeting at the palace of Eze Godson Ezekwesiri of Umuelem Community, Isuochi, in Umunneochi LGA, where he discussed the spate of kidnapping in the state.

The governor said that the government would work with stakeholders of Umunneochi to evolve strategies for reducing the incidence of kidnapping and other criminal activities in the area to the barest minimum.

He said that the issue of insecurity in Umunneochi and neighbouring areas had become a matter of great concern that requires urgent action from the government and citizens to address the issue.

According to him, the state government has made concerted efforts to ensure adequate security in the area and added that the government would intensify efforts to restore security.

“We must identify the flashpoints where people are most likely to encounter kidnappers in the area.

“I will like to know the institutional knowledge of the youths to help us identify all the inner roads in Umunneochi to facilitate effective policing of the area.

“We will try to see what it will take to open Leru road, which leads from Abia to Enugu, as part of the strategy to tackle the problem,” he said.

Mr Ikpeazu directed stakeholders of Umunneochi to identify various flashpoints in the area, adding that the ban on open grazing was still in full force in Abia.

In his speech, Biereonwu Onuagha, archbishop of the Methodist Church Nigeria, Okigwe Archdiocese, regretted that Umunneochi had become a money-making centre for kidnappers and other criminals.

Mr Onuagha called for the immediate relocation of the Lokpanta cattle market, which he described as a security threat to the people of Umunneochi.

Uzo Egbo, a former chairman of Umunneochi, said that the local government area had common boundaries with all the South-East states, making the area vulnerable to all sorts of crimes.

Mr Egbo said that over 12 incidences of kidnapping had been recorded along the Leru-Lomara-Nneato road in recent times and called on the government to come to their aid.

Mr Ikpeazu visited the scene where Methodist prelate Samuel Kanu and his team were kidnapped on May 29.

(NAN)