Abia State Government has denied that it directed Northerners who live and transact businesses at the Lokpanta Cattle Market, around the Enugu-Umuahia-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway in Umunneochi LGA of the state to leave.
According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor Alex Otti, Mr Kazie Uko, on Tuesday, northerners were described as the ‘second and third generations of Igbos” living in Lokpanta and so stated that no iota of truth in the report that went viral.
Clarifying the report, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Navy Commander Macdonald Ubah (rtd), stated that preliminary investigation points to the Lokpanta Cattle Market as a major hideout for all kinds of individuals involved in different criminal activities, including kidnappings, organ harvesting, armed robbery, and other violent crimes.
He further disclosed that ransom for kidnap victims around the Uturu-Umunneochi axis was paid in the market, a situation which prompted the government to, among other measures, carry out deliberate actions including the demolition of brothels and shanties in the market.
Briefing journalists on Monday at the Government House, Umuahia, Ubah said that the stand of the government is that the market would no longer be residential, but a daily market.
He maintained that the government’s decision to make the Lokpanta Cattle Market a daily market is in the interest of the citizens and the cattle dealers, adding that the government will not rescind on the decision.
Ubah stated that he had on two occasions held meetings with the leadership of the market unions, where he informed them of the government’s decision to make the market a daily one for security reasons.
He noted that the Lokpanta-Uturu axis of the state has been under siege by criminal elements in the last couple of years, prompting the major steps recently taken by the State Government to eliminate the spate of kidnappings and other criminal activities in the area.
Consequently, Ubah told Nigerians to disregard the fake news as there is no plan by the Abia State Government to evict Northerners from Lokpanta, and neither did Governor Alex Otti give such a directive as claimed in the fake report.
