By NEFISHETU YAKUBU

Residents of Inikorogha, Aworri and 20 other neighboring Ijaw communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo, on Wednesday protested plans by individuals to withdraw security personnel from their communities.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the protest took place in Inikorogha community.

The protesters, who came out in their numbers carried different placards with various inscription such as, Come to our aid Mr Governor, We need peace to do our business in Inikorogha.

The placards also read, we need more security personnel, Mile 3 is a kidnapping den, armed robbers come here to rape and rob our wives and women, among others.

They, however, commended Gov. Godwin Obaseki for ensuring that peace and security prevailed in Inikorogha, adding that the communities were enjoying the newly completed road project.

Addressing newsmen, the Chairman, 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 removing security from our communities.

“There is a great improvement of security in the last one year and a half and we thank the governor for providing the needed security

“Prior to now, evil attacks were meted on our community but today we have strong presence of security with the deployment of Special Forces at mile 3.

“Their presence has checkmated insecurity being perpetrated in our land by some unscrupulous elements,” he said.

The Chairman of Elders Council, Philip Polo, on his part, also expressed worry over the information to remove the Special Forces providing security in the areas

Polo, who appealed to the governor to deploy more security personnel to the area, thanked him, for his effort in road construction in Inikorogha.

“We want to first of all thank Gov. Obaseki, he has performed well in terms of infrastructure but sadly some unscrupulous criminals have made Inikorogha uninhabitable.

“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 than withdraw them, we are appealing for more security here, ” he added.

The youth leader, Jolly Edwards and the Women leader, Mary Jonah of Inikorogha community, also appealed to the governor to come to their aid by deploying more security personnel to the communities. (NAN)

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