The Commandant General (CG) of the Nigerian Civil Defence and Security Corps (NSCDC), Ahmed Abubakar Audi, has said security agencies are facing challenges tackling insecurity in the region due to lack of cooperation from members of communities.
Audi stated this, yesterday, during a meeting with the House of Representative ad-hoc committee investigating killings and kidnapping in Umunneochi Community, Abia State.
Represented by the Assistant Commandant General, NSCDC, Philip Ayuba, the agency’s boss insisted that part of the challenges the security agencies are facing in tackling the problem of insecurity in the region is lack of cooperation from members of communities where the acts were being carried out.
He said: “We found that almost everybody in that community has a weapon, and there is the willful disposition of many communities to purchase locally made arms. There is a lack of cooperation by the community as we try to get information from them and when our men go there for man hunting. They find it difficult to volunteer information about who are involved in criminal activities. Even within themselves, they are afraid of themselves.”
Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Taoreed Lagbaja, however, promised that kidnapping, banditry and other criminal activities currently ravaging the South East, especially Isiukwuato and Umunnochi councils of Abia state will soon end.
