Posted by By Ike Abonyi on
Respite yesterday came the way of the embattled Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, as President Olusegun Obasanjo waded into the lingering crisis in Onitsha....
Respite yesterday came the way of the embattled Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, as President Olusegun Obasanjo waded into the lingering crisis in Onitsha, directing the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero to clear the commercial city of all hoodlums.
The President's directive, according to sources, came via a memo from the Chief of Staff, Major General Abdullahi Mohammed to Ehindero instructing that the police should take over motor parks at Onitsha, Anambra State.
Obasanjo was said to have directed that 'while the Anambra State Government is at liberty to appoint an accountant to collect revenue at the motor park, it must be ensured that the park is cleared of all persons belonging to organisations such as Bakassi Boys, Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the National Association of Road, Transport Owners (NARTO) among others."
When THISDAY spoke to Obi on phone last night, he confirmed that he was aware of the presidential directive while praising what he described as "a courageous move by the president who has been supportive in all my struggles to rid the state of hoodlums."
According to Obi, what the directive means is "that we are taking sugar from the mouth of these troublemakers who are denying the state of vital sources of internally generated revenues and have become laws unto themselves."
Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the state has been engulfed in a crisis over who controls the huge revenue base from the parks and markets in the town.
NARTO and MASSOB have engaged each other in a showdown over who controls the revenue of the town since the APGA government under Obi came to power in March this year. A tribunal verdict had sacked former Governor, Chris Ngige.
THISDAY learnt that former political godfather of Ngige, Chief Chris Uba had allegedly installed NARTO while Ngige allegedly brought in the MASSOB to help him dislodge NARTO.
With the backers of the duo now out of government, Obi has been unwilling and ready to negotiate with either of them.
Obi had told THISDAY in his office in Awka a forthnight ago that his government was not ready to negotiate with anybody or group on the control of revenue in Onitsha.
According to Obi, Onitsha is supposed to generate a revenue of over N8 billion yearly but hardly does the government get five percent of the sum.
He said because of the poor revenue profile of the city, arising from this development, successive governments in the state have done little or nothing to improve on depleted infrastructures in the city.
'I can tell you that Onitsha is collapsing and something has to be done urgently to rescue it and part of it is to first dismantle the gangsters holding on to the city," he said.
However, leadership of both NARTO and MASSOB have severally denied being responsible for the mayhem that has led to the loss of several lives and property in the city.
When the crisis broke out three weeks ago, Ehindero had dispatched two of his deputies, Messrs Ogbonnaya Onovo and Mike Okiro to Onitsha to investigate and quell the crisis and they were later joined by an Army unit to help bring calm to the city.
Curfew imposed on Onitsha and its environs by the Anambra State Government has remained in force since the crisis began in the past three weeks.