When Apama boy, a popular musician sang that “things are happening in Upper Iweka (Ife na-eme n’Upper Iweka aeee e) people did not understand what he meant. Upper Iweka is one of the notorious areas in the commercial city of Onitsha that had assumed dangerous notoriety to itself in Nigeria and Africa at large.
From Asaba, immediately one stepped into the Head-Bridge from the Upper Iweka axis, the atmosphere and the weather condition change. You begin to feel death, terror and acrid stench of maimed individuals. You begin to sense danger in every young man’s eyes. The way the commercial motorcyclists would attack you will also further increase your heartbeat. Then what comes into your mind at that moment is that you are in Upper Iweka.
Anybody that was coming into Onitsha for the first time was at the mercy of these urchins who operated in a commando way. They have killed so many people in the process of dispossessing them of their belongings. One of them was a Youth Corps member, later identified as Chioma who left Yola in Adamawa state to meet her family in Owerri and could not travel that night.
The next morning, the lifeless body of Chioma was discovered at the Upper Iweka fly over. It was not clear the way these urchins came into the park of a popular transporter and whisked the girl away and killed her. It further pointed to the fact that some park managers, drivers and conductor were members of this syndicate.
Before the recent launch of the deadly security Special Task Force code named Ogbunigwe by Governor Willie Obiano, Upper Iweka had remained the country’s most deadly park where criminals in a brazen day light unleash terror to their victims, killing and maiming some of them even before the prying eyes of security men.
At a time, Oriental News could report that these evil men in men’s clothing had extended their hand of hatred to visitors and unsuspecting travelers who were either passing through Onitsha through the Niger headbridge as the gateway to the Eastern parts of the country or visiting the commercial city of Onitsha for the first time.
Successive administrations in the state however did little or nothing to sanitize the Upper Iweka axis and restore law and order in the city which is adjudged the largest commercial city in West Africa until the emergence of Governor Obiano whom those boys have given another name as (Obiakpo) meaning a man whose heart is at the back.
The Upper Iweka before the recent attack on the miscreants was the den of armed robbers, kidnappers and drug peddlers. In fact, Oriental News also gathered that there was no business of any kind that was not going on in the area. It grew so large and its of springs grew so powerful that they were seen in broad daylight unleashing mayhem to their prey.
Upper Iweka grew so dangerous that all forms of illegal business were on 24 hours every day even before the presence of policemen. There, even some sacked and fake policemen held sway, dispossessing unsuspecting traders and passersby of their valuables in broad daylight.
Those who either refused to part with demanded sum of money or property equivalent to their demands were often dragged to an unknown places in the name of taking them to the station where so many of them were either tortured to death or robbed and maimed for life.
In other cases, these Upper Iweka urchins had allegedly gone into dangerous alliance with serving and top police men and other security agents in the state and commercial city of Onitsha whom they allegedly remit undisclosed sum of money on daily and weekly basis depending on the level of alliance and rules of engagement.
At a time, it became so uncontrollable that these urchins maim their victims in the presence of the policemen on patrol without any help. Those who had mustered courage to invite policemen to the scene where their attackers were still on duty, either received the bitter pill of being clamped into detention in various police stations across the city.
Apart from the urchins carrying different booklets of receipts and emblem unleashing mayhem on motorists, there were other group of urchins specialized in selling Indian hemp in various parks in Upper Iweka like the Aba, Lagos, Owerri and other big motor parks in the area.
Before the Ogbunigwe task force was unleashed on them, the Obodoukwu junction in Owerri road was a terrible junction for anybody to stand for more than two minutes, reason was because, to wait for a vehicle at the junction is to wait for your attackers as these boys will not hesitate to surround you and disposes you of all your valuables.
There were other group of urchins specialized in collecting gold necklaces and every other necklace they thought was gold. Their job was to be patrolling along the Obodoukwu junction. From the Obodoukwu junction, they would patrol up to the Peoples Club, Owerri road and down to the Upper Iweka fly over in search of their prey.
Once they sighted their victims either in the bus or trekking, they would pounce on you, put their hands on your neck and forcefully take your necklace and ran into the slum. Their victims were often women especially those that adorn themselves with expensive ornaments including golden rings, earrings and necklaces.
When the incidents became out of hand, some high class ladies passing through Upper Iweka devised another means of escaping from these boys. They would wear their gold necklace and once they were approaching the deadly spot, they would remove them and put them into their hand bag.
When they thought they had beat the intelligence of the boys, the urchins then devised their own means of snatching every bag they found on any lady either while in the bus or trekking alone along the road. They would use an unregistered new motorcycle to trail you until they will get you in a bad corner where nobody will come to your aide.
Oriental News also reported that once these urchins sighted anybody approaching, they had their own mechanism with which they know the real gold and once they noticed, they would signal each other and before the victims noticed; his or her necklace was gone.
These groups of boys were also into snatching mobile phones from their victims especially from female victims who were either in the bus going to Owerri or any other part of the state through Upper Iweka.
For good drivers, before they will move, they will warn everybody that has any expensive mobile phone to switch it off and put inside his bag because he shall not be held responsible if the boys snatch the phone while in motion as his own life would be at risk if he stopped.
Some drivers, hawkers, policemen and market women are members of these groups of urchins that held Onitsha and its residents spell bound for so many years. More worrisome is the fact that some of the drivers that belong to these syndicate, load from the down fly over to another fly over in Oba junction where unsuspecting passengers would be robbed even while the vehicle was still moving.
The one chance drivers were also on rampage in various parts of the commercial city especially in Upper Iweka. They operated from the Upper Iweka Down fly over to Mgbuka first and second gates and from there to Oba old road junction where they would divert the road and headed to Obosi through the fly over after dispossessing their unsuspecting passengers of their money and burst out again at Nkpor junction from where they would return to Upper Iweka.
Apart from the notorious pick pockets in Upper Iweka, there were other forms of criminality which had remained unchecked before Obiano’s Ogbunigwe policy. Before the task force enforcement, a group of neatly dressed miscreants also parade themselves in the parks, brandishing beautiful luggage as people ready to travel. These people in collaboration with their members working as conductors or loaders in the parks pretend to be traveling and would go to the car trunk to put their bag where they would carry another passenger’s bag, dropping their empty bag and ran away.
Also in the same Upper Iweka was a syndicate of women, whose stock in trade was selling children to their respective buyers. They allegedly steal the babies from Akwa Ibom in Uyo and Calabar in Cross River States to Upper Iweka where their customers would be waiting for their delivery.
Fraudsters in various forms also held sway in Upper Iweka. These men and women operated from Upper Iweka to Asaba in Delta state whenever they got their prey. They are men and women whose duties were to assemble at Upper Iweka every morning to review their strategy for the day’s job before dispersing to other parts of the city.
Though nobody knew what Obiano have up his sleeve immediately he took oath of office, Oriental News gathered that in furtherance to his electioneering and inaugural promises to tackle insecurity headlong in the state, he swung into action by first constituting a special security task force comprising all military and para military agencies.
Governor Obiano told Oriental News that the decision to scatter Upper Iweka was apt, adding that his administration is committed to fighting all forms of crime and criminality in the state in whatever name. He said that the joint security task force he called Ogbunigwe was constituted to fight the boys behind all the heinous crime in the city.
He said that the task force team is made up of all security outfits in the country, the Army, Navy, Police, Department of State Security, DSS, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSDC, the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC as well as members of the local vigilance group.
“If I am able to give my people security and power, they will start coming home because it pains me that Ndi Anambra are not coming home as they should, because of insecurity. So that is why we have started operation keep Anambra clean. I know you have seen what is happening in Upper Iweka, the idea is to flush all the criminals from the commercial city to further boost our economy”
Also speaking, the Commander of the 302 Artillery Regiment and General Support, Onitsha, Col. Jubril Fagge said that idea as brought by Governor Obiano was to sanitize the city and make it habitable for people and visitors.
Col. Fagge expressed sadness that before the recent operation, criminals had found a safe haven at Upper Iweka and other parts of the commercial city, adding that the operation was to rid the city of all idle young men who indulge in the crime. He said that the task force started by picking all the bad boys who dress up every morning to come and stay idle in Upper Iweka, adding that any man that has no known meaningful way of surviving is a suspect and should be arrested.
The Commissioner of Police in charge of Anambra state command, Mr. Usman Gwary also said that the operation has yielded the desired goals, noting that before the end of this month, nobody shall witness any form of crime or criminality in Upper Iweka and other parts of the city and the state at large.
Mr. Usman said the Ogbunigwe has recorded a great feat since its operation and said that during the exercise so many notorious criminals who had been on the wanted list of the police have been picked, while assuring that peace, law and order shall return to Upper Iweka.
Meanwhile, Oriental News further gathered that some influential men who are allegedly behind these boys have threatened to deal with Governor Obiano for daring to stop them from their means of livelihood.
Now, it is still like a dream for many residents of Onitsha that finally Upper Iweka could be sanitized and one can afford to travel or walk through the road without anybody accosting him and attacking him for carrying an empty cellophane bag.
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