Enugu Named The Safest Place To Live In Nigeria Despite High Crime Rate

By Chris Oji

Enugu Named The Safest Place To Live In Nigeria Despite High Crime Rate

A critical assessment of Enugu state since 2015 till date reveals that the state is the safest in Nigeria despite the recent media hype of a rise in crime rate in the state.

With the support of the State governor, the security agencies, particularly the police have also risen to the challenges.

Despite the rising crime trend in the state, there had been hardly any crime that was not detected and the culprits not arrested.

A case in point was the prompt arrest of the killers of the orderly to the deputy governor. All the suspects were arrested within one week and brought to book.

Also of recent, the killers of two Catholic priests were promptly arrested and are facing the wrath of the law.

The police have actually lived up to expectations by providing the answer to the most important thing that happens after a crime is committed.

Arguably it is in Enugu that all crimes committed are followed till all the suspects are arrested.

The performance of the police in Enugu cannot without tonic provided by the Enugu state governor.

Ugwuanyi recently gave to the police not fewer than 70 Hilux vehicles, Sienna SUVs and other brands for decoy operations. He as well pays monthly allowances to the operatives, provides fuel and other logistics requirements for the agencies to perform.

Worthy of note is that the governor himself sometimes leads patrol raids on criminal hideouts and dark spots at Obiagu Road, Ogui and Asata, notable homes for drug dealers and users as well as other criminals.

The governor had also to packaged an anti-kidnapping bill, which he sent to the State House of Assembly for legislation. He followed it up by giving directive for the recruitment of 1,700 forest guards to begin to patrol the bushes and thick forests of the state, to fish out these criminals from their hideouts.

He had equally given directive, and had personally supervised, the clearing of bushes, particularly along the Awgu axis of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Express Way, identified as rendezvous for the criminals, and where killings and kidnappings had taken place in recent weeks.

With the evolvement of intelligence gathering, sharing and collaboration by all the security agencies including the Army, DSS etc, it is expected they would pool hands together and up the game of crime fighting.

Enugu being the capital of former Eastern Region is vital to all Easterners and if there is any ant that flies over it, it will be blown out of proportion, hence the recent media hype in crime occurrence in the state. In all Enugu remains a peaceful state as it maintained its resilient nature .

One aspect of noteworthy in the recent media hype is the presence of detractors who are at work to ensure that the governor’s efforts in securing the state would be seen as hoax.

For example recently, a popular politician in the state raised a false alarm of the kidnap of his daughter. It is being wondered if his aim and interest was just to sabotage the peace being propagated by pessimists in a resilient city like Enugu which is an envy of others as it is among the 100 resilient cities in the world and the only one in Nigeria.