#EndSARS: Ebonyi retrieves cutlasses given to state security outfit’s members

Stanley Emegha, Ebonyi State Commissioner for Internal Security, Border Peace and Conflict Resolution, has said all the cutlasses given to the state’s neighbourhood security watch members have been retrieved.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the neighbourhoods watch members, who were not usually seen with any form of weaponry, were suddenly seen brandishing cutlasses during the recent #EndSARS crisis in the state.

The situation caused anxiety among the citizenry, which reminded them of the “Bakassi Boys” era in some states of the South East in the early 2000.

Emegha made the disclosure on Friday while briefing newsmen at the end of the State Executive Council meeting.

The Commissioner said that providing the cutlasses to the security outfit’s members was his initiative, adding that he personally retrieved the items from them.

He said: “It was clear that the police are ‘boxed’ in and could not do anything anymore.

“They could not face those Indigenous Peoples of Biafra people through that means, but you can see that there was no machete cut on anybody.

“They used the machetes to prove that they are youths who can face fellow youths as those hoodlums are youths from others states.

“The public should therefore not panic over the situation as the cutlasses had all been retrieved.”

Emegha also said in order to checkmate the security challenges in the state occasioned especially with the #EndSARS crisis, the government had banned the use of the ‘Carter’ brand of motorcycles.

He said: “The hoodlums operate on the carter brand of motorcycles which has almost the same speed capacity with vehicles and can meander through any kind of track or road.

“It has therefore been banned in all parts of the state, while the law banning the use of motorcycles beyond 7pm in the state still stands and will be made more effective.”

In the same vein, Uchenna Orji, the Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, added that the neighbourhood watch members were duly recruited and properly trained to secure the people’s lives and properties.

Orji said: “They are not ordinary youths, but are ‘semi-security or civilian-trained’ and the government is even considering empowering them with any permitted weaponry to ‘police’ our communities.

“I want to assure that whether they use bar, iron or any sharp object, what is important is the training and the fact that they know what they are doing.”