By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, CP Aderemi Adeoye, has said that five out of seven local government areas in Anambra South Senatorial Zone have been freed from the grip of insurgents.

He said the command has deployed tactics that is helping it to gain grounds against insurgents, saying that peace is gradually returning to the state.

Speaking to journalists in Awka at the weekend, Adeoye said the Command is working to totally end terrorism in the state, but have been very tactical in the fight, to avoid what he referred to as collateral damage.

He said: “What almost engulfed the whole state is insurgency, and you know this is like guerilla warfare. When you fight guerilla warfare, you must be deliberate and methodical because it is not a conventional war.

“You make progress slowly. You gain grounds, you secure it. You reclaim occupied territory and you secure it and then go further.

“Before now, all the seven local government areas that are in the Anambra South Zone were under the control of the insurgents. But now other parts of the state are safe except Nnewi South and few areas in Ihiala.

“So out of seven local government areas, we have reclaimed five, and we are working on liberating the remaining two. Incidentally, those two have links with Imo. It got so bad that even their traditional rulers fled the communities.

“Those areas you mentioned as ‘no-go-areas’, we have Forward Operating Bases (FOB) there. We have in Osumoghu,Ukpor, Uli, and those are aimed at ensuring we stem encroachment from Imo. These measures have been effective and that is why the rest of the state has been safe, because the routes through which they come have been stopped. Our police special forces are there, army is there, police is there, anti-terrorist unit is also there.”

While saying that the insurgency problem is not against non-indigenes as people assume, the Commissioner noted that the kidnappers also kidnap their own people and ask for ransom, which if not paid will attract death.

Adeoye added, “95percent of their victims are their own relatives. The other five percent are travelers, who due to lack of the knowledge of the area, run into them. Our advice is to use the expressway always.

“We are working to gradually reclaim all these areas that the insurgents have turned into their hideouts, because of natural forests, harsh topography, difficult terrains and others. They take refuge in that place and launch attacks from there, but now it is very difficult for them to launch such attacks and come out alive.

Attacks have been checked to a reasonable extent. They plant landmines around those camps and also use rocket propelled grenade launchers. These are war materials and we are not at war. Federal government has exercised a lot of restraint in dealing with the problem, and I will advise the insurgents not to push their luck so far because patience has a limit.

“You will agree with me that up till now we have not used air strikes, Why? Because we are concerned about the safety of the people there. We don’t want collateral damage. But if their existence there will make life meaningless to innocent people, then federal government would have been pushed to the wall to go all out and take them out, in order to secure the people who have become canon-folder in their hands.”