Inhabitants of enclaves spreading over 22 communities in Inikorogha of Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State staged a peaceful protest on Wednesday against what they described as plans by some powerful individuals to withdraw the presence of security personnel maintaining peace in the localities.
The protesters, who came out in their hundreds, carried different placards with various inscriptions such as “Come to our aid, Mr Governor,” “We need peace to do our business in Inikorogha,” and “Armed robbers come here to rape & rob our wives and women,” among others.
They, however, commended Governor Godwin Obaseki for ensuring that peace and security prevailed in Inikorogha and also linking the communities through road construction.
Addressing newsmen during the protest, the chairman of the Inikorogha community, Friday Benson, appealed to the governor to see to the extension and increase of security presence in the community.
“What we are saying in essence is that nobody should truncate the effort of the governor by plans to remove security from our communities.
“There has been a great improvement in security in the last year and a half. We thank the governor for providing the needed security
“Prior to now, evil attacks were meted out to our community, but today we have a strong presence of security with the deployment of special forces at mile 3.
“Their presence has checkedmate insecurity being perpetrated in our land by some unscrupulous elements.” He reiterated.
Expressing worry over information to remove the special forces providing security in the areas, Chairman of Elders Council, Philip Polo, on his part, called for more deployment of security personnel, just as he thanked Governor Obaseki for his effort in road construction in Inikorogha.
“We want to first of all thank Governor Obaseki; he has performed well in terms of infrastructure, but sadly, that gave birth to some unscrupulous criminals that have made Inikorogha uninhabitable, perpetrated by some militants who came through the rivers.
“But when security came, everybody was relieved. The situation now is that these same people are trying to pull the strings from behind.
“We have information that they are trying to see to the withdrawal of the special forces responsible for peace; rather, we are appealing for more security here.”
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