Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano has confirmed that there were indeed plans by the Federal Government to relocate some terrorist suspects to the state but that he resisted the plan because the state prison facilities were inadequate to accommodate such high-risk inmates.
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Governor, Mr. James Eze who while speaking to an online platform, ITRealms, said some of the objections raised by the governor included: “That Anambra has been one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria in the past one year under his watch and that the arrival of these radical elements in any part of the state would disrupt this peace and lead to a new regime of a different kind of fear in the state.
“That Ekwulobia Prisons is not a Maximum Security Prison. It is therefore not suitable as holding place for convicted terrorists. Global experiences show that terrorists and terror suspects are kept in strongly fortified and isolated places. A good example is the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp where the US keeps high-risk terror suspects and convicts which is a military facility, located away from the people. Ekwulobia Prisons does not fit into this category of detention facilities.
“That Ekwulobia Prisons has a capacity to hold 85 inmates. At the moment, there are 135 inmates in the prison. Therefore, there is no space for new prisoners. The acute shortage of space presents a high possibility for the radicalization of other inmates by the Boko Haram convicts.
“That unlike other locations where the terror-convicts are held in sparsely populated areas which makes their isolation from the people easy, Ekwulobia is a densely populated town. There is a very high risk of contact between these radical prisoners and the civilian population with an avoidable danger.
“That the relocation of these prisoners to Anambra may not have paid adequate attention to the sensibilities of the country, especially the fact that some ethnic populations have suffered the most from the activities of these convicts across the North.”
It is recalled that last week, traders in the state staged a peaceful protest against such plans by the federal government.
Meanwhile, All Progressives Congress, APC, South-East geopolitical zone, has described as blatant falsehood alleged plan by the Federal Government to transfer suspected Boko Haram detainees to Ekwulobia Prison in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. Angry youths had last Saturday, paralysed commercial activities in markets in Anambra State in protest over the alleged plan.
Spokesperson of APC in the South-East, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said in a statement: “ We wish to categorically that the rumour making the rounds that Boko Haram detainees will be transferred to Anambra State or any other state for that matter is blatant falsehood. “We have made contacts with the Presidency, Nigeria Prison Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs and they have assured us that there is no iota of truth in the mischievous rumour.
“In the clarification, Nigeria Prison Service stated unequivocally that most of the terror suspects are awaiting trial and so there is no way they can be moved to another state because they must be tried in the state where they committed the crime. “They went further to state that their primary and traditional duty is to move detainees from prison to trial courts and that moving high profile suspects from a distance more than 1000 kilometers from Maiduguri to Onitsha will be near to very difficult.”