Uromi In Insecurity Vice-Grip By Austin Isikhuemen Part Three (Final)
In this final installment of his series Uromi in the Deadly Insecurity Vice-Grip, Austin Isikhuemen calls for immediate, strategic action to address the growing crisis of insecurity that has taken hold of Uromi and Esanland. With a sense of urgency, he outlines the crucial steps needed to reclaim the region’s safety and restore its prosperity.
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From empowering local heroes like Bruce of Esan Youth Awareness, whose grassroots intelligence efforts have been instrumental in preventing crime, to the groundbreaking development of a Mobile Police Barracks in Uromi, Isikhuemen offers a roadmap for collective action.
The need for collaboration among all stakeholders—government, security agencies, the diaspora, and the local community—is clearer than ever. This final article is both a call to action and a hopeful look at the steps being taken to combat crime, curb violence, and ensure that Uromi and Esanland have a fighting chance against the tides of insecurity threatening their way of life.
Now, enjoy the reading.
IMPERATIVE NEXT STEPS
1.COLLABORATION BY ALL
If you want to know how bad the situation is, please go to the Facebook media page of Esan Youth Awareness anchored by a very courageous young man called Bruce. Though diaspora-based, he has his team members doing a yeoman’s job that never ceases to amaze me.
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His intelligence gathering ability and the accuracy of such intelligence makes him an asset to any security agency worth that name. They are unarmed, have busted a lot of crimes, prevented execution of criminal acts, helped identify culprits and even give early warnings on criminal plans by evil people at Uromi and pan-Esan.
Check his handle on Facebook, Bruce Esan Voice, and you will be educated on goings on concerning widespread insecurity in Esan land. Bruce has virtually dedicated his every day to Esan security issues.
Bruce of Esan Youth Awareness – a real hero!
Those his home-based boys, unarmed, have busted many crimes and criminals including kidnappers and their local collaborators, arresting them and handing them over to the police.
They are even helping to fight the growing drug menace at Uromi, successfully busting some cells. They do this work diligently, daily, but no one pays them any salary nor gives them any logistics support. At least, not in the required quantum. But for them, the Uromi security situation would have been much worse.
They have been taking these risks on their own. The State Governor, who incidentally hails from that axis, can afford to give the Esan Youth Awareness group two or three hilux pickups from the pool of those he bought recently or procure new ones for them. That’s what security votes are for!
They work together with the police collaboratively and the DPO and AREA commanders even rely on them for the required intelligence to crack many cases these days! They pose no threat except to the criminally-minded. The LGA Chairman should put them on LGA payroll immediately.
Bruce deserves, in all honesty and sense of responsibility, a pan Esan Chieftaincy title and award to be celebrated for his courageous, innovative, risk-prone, aggressive leadership and support for the protection of our Esan homeland!
2. ESAN MOBILE POLICE BARRACKS
Edo north has a mobile police detachment – Mopol 60 around Iyamho as well as Nicoho Army barracks and Nigeria Army School of Engineers along Auchi – Igarra road. In Edo South, there are numerous police formations as well as Ekenwan Army barracks and School of Supply and Transport at Ugbowo.
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Lack of such deterrent rapid response forces, with sufficient firepower, across Edo Central has left the place very vulnerable to attacks as experienced when virtually all the six commercial banks at Uromi were robbed in broad daylight in February 2022.
In frustration and anger that Esan had been left to its own devices, some Esan elite and concerned diaspora children decided that lack of mobile police presence in Edo Central has left the zone with a rapid response capability gap.
They mooted the idea of a mobile police squadron stationed at Uromi to respond to distress calls across Esanland. But efforts made to engage the police brass hats yielded no result.
They then took it on themselves to build a mobile police facility and donate it to the police, provided the police hierarchy is committed to deploy a full Mopol Squadron once the project is completed. His Royal Highness, Zaiki Anslem Eidenojie II, the Ojuromi personally laid the foundation stone of the project assisted by Bishop Okpebholo of Ray Royal fame and several dignitaries with Fred Ojeaga rendering impressive coordination services.
The project is almost fully completed – the 2-storey massive Administrative Building to house the offices of the Mopol force has been completed, fully painted in police livery. The entire land has been fenced about ten blocks high. The quarter guard and sentry post have all been completed and painted.
Residential quarters are in progress. All these through personal donations by individuals at home and abroad. The diaspora contribution has been a critical enabler. Kudos to them. This is the very first of its kind in Nigeria and Esan has blazed the trail!
I hereby call on the Inspector General of Police, to honour the police commitment and expedite the deployment the Mopol Squadron between April and May 2025.
On 29 May, that can be included in the President’s speech as a major community/police collaboration achievement of the Presidents’ first two years in office. It will give the IG something to crow about and provide political milage to the President.
3. THE ROAD TO THE MOBILE POLICE BARRACKS
The State Government under the leadership of Senator Monday Okpebholo should kindly construct and macadamize that road so that access to the security facility can be smooth.
This is critical to the effectiveness of the rapid response capability they are bringing to bear on the Uromi/Esan security situation.
4. POLICING SHOULD BE CIVIL
News coming from Uromi indicates that many of the newly deployed policemen, in the aftermath of the unfortunate killings – may Allah grant access to Aljanna Firdausi for the souls of the dead – think they are there to extort the citizens.
They are said to be opening young people’s phones – against the IG’s clear directives and best practice worldwide – accusing them of 419 or yahoo yahoo and getting them to transfer the moneys in their accounts before they are released!
It is attitudes like these that turn citizens against security agencies and make intelligence gathering a frustrating task with suboptimal results! How can the people be running away from the armed bandits and kidnappers and running away from the police who ought to protect them? This should be stopped forthwith.
Uromi and Esanland are not a conquered people and the police cannot turn itself to an occupation force. That will not bode well for police/community relationship. Hopefully, the Police Mobile Force Squadron should never come with extortion as its policy.
We of Amedokhian quarters in Uromi, levied ourselves, built and donated a police station to the Police Commissioner some years ago. This effort was championed by Hon. Friday Itulah who mobilized the members of Amedokhian Development Association (ADA) raise funds and execute the project.
The day the Commissioner of Police came to commission it, I personally bought an “I-better-pass-my-neighbour” generating set to ensure the station does not lack power supply at night.
The next time I visited home, the place was in darkness and I found the officers on duty using two candles. “Where is the generator, no fuel?” I asked. I was told that the DPO took the generator away immediately after the inauguration!
What the heck! That, my people, must never be allowed to happen at the Mopol Barracks we just built. I thank all donors and the coordination efforts of our indefatigable Fred Ojeaga.
In closing, I would like to commend the Edo State Governor and his Kano State counterpart as well as the Emir of Kano – Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for the mature handling of potential grenade whose clip was already pulled off!
The Federal and State government must rise to the challenge and kill insecurity before insecurity kills us all. Going from Kano to hunt game in Port Harcourt, crossing about eight state boundaries, carrying arms and ammunition, is a sign of failed employment and education opportunities and a bit of a bridge too far.
It will be a wholesome unprofitable exercise when logistics costs are built in.
7th April, 2025.
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