ARMED ROBBERS TAKE OVER PH-OWERRI ROAD

Dare-devil armed robbers seem to have taken over the Port Harcourt-Owerri express way as they now rob innocent motorists frequently without interruption from security agencies from either Rivers or Imo States.

 

The road, which is presently being dualized from the Port Harcourt axis, by the Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi-led Rivers State government and from the Owerri axis, by the federal ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, is the link between most states in the South-South and South-East geo-political zones of the country.

 

Ogwareports gathered that such robbery attacks, which have become a daily occurrence, always take place along the Umuapu- Nkarahia- Umuagwo-Mgbirichi axis of the road, which is in Ohaji/Egbema local government area of Imo State.

 

It was further gathered that the gang of armed robbers, numbering about seven always operate on morning of Sundays, especially between the hours of 8.00 am and 11.30 pm

 

A commercial bus driver, Nze Bonny Chukwueke told Ogwareports in Port Harcourt that passengers travelling from Port Harcourt to Owerri, the Imo State capital in his vehicle have been robbed within that axis three times in the last four weeks.

 

Chukwueke narrated how he narrowly escaped from the armed robbers, who blocked the Nkarahia axis of the road in the morning of last Sunday, September 11, 2011, and disposed a lot of them of their belongings.

 

Another victim of the last Sunday’s robbery attack on the road, Mr. Sampson Onugha told Ogwareports that the commercial vehicle he was travelling in was forced to stop near an empty police check-point at Nkarahia junction, where he and other passengers on board were robbed of about of all their belongings.

 

“Yesterday, being Sunday, we were robbed near that police check-point as we were going to Owerri. I was travelling to my village to see my family. They took N140, 000.00 I heard on me. Other passengers were also robbed. Those that did not have much money on them were given the beating of their lives. I heard that the robbers attacked two buses last Sunday and robbed the passengers.

 

 “Each time they rob people, they just run into the bush towards Nkarahia village. I am suspecting that the robbers may be from that village or the neighbouring villages because they operate on that road every day, either in the morning or in the evening,” Onugha said.

 

Commenting on the development, an indigene of Imo State, Mrs. Alice Obiabin Onukwugha appealed to Governor Rochas Anayo Okorocha and his Rivers State counterpart, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to come to the aid of motorist plying the road by increasing security presence at their respective ends to ensure the safety of all.

 

Onukwugha, who is a Port Harcourt-based journalist said Okorocha needs to tackle the issue of insecurity in the state head-long in order to make the state safe for all.