The member representing Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Chris Azubogu, has inspected 14 Police facilities destroyed by protesters within his constituency in Anambra State.
Azubogu described the destruction as massive and colossal, while regretting that hoodlums took advantage of the peaceful End SARS protest to loot and wreak havoc on essential public facilities within his federal constituency and beyond.
He said, “From my findings, within the three local government areas in my federal constituency, the rampaging hoodlums destroyed security infrastructure and other critical amenities, including an armored personnel carrier [APC]; while two police officers and a yet to be affirmed number of protesters lost their lives during the unfortunate incidents.
“The level of damage, to say the least, was shocking and I wondered what it was that led to such a volume of destruction in the first place that we couldn’t have resolved through our time honored internal conflict resolution mechanisms.
“Our people are peace-loving and we have strong community-based conflict resolution mechanisms that have proven effective over the years. So, to have allowed whatever disagreements there were to degenerate to the callous point they did was really sad.”
The lawmaker said he was deeply pained by the regrettable twist because the destruction and senseless looting took place in an environment where the people have had to largely provide the damaged facilities, infrastructure inclusive, for themselves with scarce private resources.
He lamented that funds which would have been deployed to consolidate provision of much-needed infrastructure will now be consigned to rebuilding the damaged facilities.
“It is yet another challenge for us as a people and government, as we have to find a way to rebuild all these as a matter of urgency and also put in place a framework that will avert a repeat of this ugly episode in future.
“It is so unfortunate that this happened at a time we are battling to facilitate more critical infrastructural facilities that will help businesses, especially our manufacturing hub, improve productivity and create more jobs for young people,” Azubogu lamented.
Some of the destroyed facilities include, Nnewi Central Police Station, Nnewi Area Command, INEC Office, Nnewi, Defunct F-SARS Office, Nnewi, EEDC Office, Nnewi, Police Barrack, Nnewi, Federal Road Safety Office, Nnewi and Osumenyi Police Stations.
Others are; Ochi Police Station, Amichi, Ezinifite Police Station, Ukpor Divisional Police Station, Ichi Police Station, Ozubulu Divisional Police Station and Ekwusigo Area Command, Oraifite, Ekwusigo LGA.
