I want to begin by appreciating the foresight, dexterity and transparency of the administration of Chief Sir Obi Aguocha, led Ohuhu Welfare Union and his proactive and visionary team.
Ohuhu as a clan is no doubt blessed with plenitude of human capital and material resources in almost every area of human endeavour, we are also reputed to love, trust and relate with each other without regards to political, cultural, religious, social or class boundaries.
I want to once again repeat my earlier call that our future is threatened, we are being threatened not by external criminal elements, bandits or fulani herdsmen invasion as some false alarmists would want us to believe, but by CULTISM and DRUG ABUSE, the sad reality is that we have neglected our home front while looking for external blame, every village today has crack joints and our bushes and farmlands have been turned to initiation grounds by cultists.
Our annual Ekpe festival which used to be a cultural carnival that we all looked forward to as it affords us the opportunity of enjoying ourselves with friends and relatives have been turned to gyration ground by cult groups brandishing all forms of weaponry, raping women, harassing and openly robbing people. These cultists gather and take young boys and girls into the bush gang rape the women, pummel the boys and bill them huge amount of money in the name of initiation and thereafter unleash them to the public to terrorize their communities.
Our private investigation returned the frightening revelation that Umuawa Alaocha has the unenviable record of being the headquarter and supply hub of all manner of illicit drugs to the whole of Umuahia, while cocaine and heroine is freely hawked almost in every village in Afugiri, every hamlet in ofeme and Ubaha has joints where Igbo and other concoctions and illicit drugs such as Jiko, Lakatomtom, Colorado, SK, Tramadol etc are openly merchandised.
The consumption and sales of hard and dangerous drugs within Ohuhu has become very embarrassing and dangerously pandemic, truth is, every village in Ohuhu from Nkwoegwu to Amaogwugwu/Umuagu, Amafor,Umuda, Umuire, umudiawa, Akpahia, Umungasi down to Ekeoba now has well-known crack joints where our youths go to smoke their future away right under our watch and supervision, it is therefore not surprising that armed robbery and kidnapping are no longer strange stories heard from afar or read in the pages of the newspapers, child rape and molestation is now an everyday occurrence.
While I want to applaud Ndi Eze Ohuhu, led by its chairman Eze Nnamdi Ofoegbu’ and Sir Obi Aguocha’ led Ohuhu Welfare Union for setting up Ohuhu vigilante group (OVG) which I must commend the groups outstanding efforts in policing Ohuhu and ensuring that security is visible across the length and breadth of Ohuhu, I must restate that if we do not checkmate drug abuse and cultism in Ohuhu, our efforts will amount to an exercise in futility.
I want to plead that in addition to the originally envisioned focus and purpose of the Summit it will also be important for us to take on the root cause of Insecurity, Drug Abuse and Cultism that has taken root in Ohuhu, and researches have shown that all the social vices being experienced in Ohuhu today is a product of unemployment, since it is a barefaced fact that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, I have the belief that the 2020 Ohuhu Summit will seek to provide political direction and momentum towards the overall development of our clan and it will be a monumental achievement to the credit of the executives of OWUF, if they can utilize the opportunity and trust invested in their administration to introduce and promote an industrialization policy for Ohuhu, we can also identify, encourage and plead with our sons and daughters that has the capacity to employ or influence employment to assist in this direction, Ohuhu Welfare Union should also organize an economic summit where we can invite captains of industries and big investors in the national economy who are from Ohuhu or their friends to come forward and plant industries in Ohuhu.
We can also map out an industrial zone where interested investors can site industries, this I believe will reduce the rate of unemployment and will also engage the youths with its chain effect being economic growth, peaceful, stabilized and a crime free Ohuhu.
Aguoru
Writes From Umuahia
