Umuaka PGs, women stage protest over escalating violence.
2 min read
All the 10 presidents-general in Umuaka Municipal Council UMC, otherwise known as Umuaka Ebe Iri, last week staged a successful protest from Ime Afor Umuaka modern market to other strategic areas in the community. The purpose of the protest was to conspicuously register their grievances over the spate of escalating violence that seems to have found a comfortable expression and accommodation in the community for some time now. From last year 2020 till date, there have been several reports of violence in the community seriously bothering on the use of offensive weapons to settle disagreements among youths, armed banditry, violent fights and robbing of POS operators and customers.
The protest which was organized and sponsored by Chief Emeka Ibegbulem, the Ochiriozuo 1 of Isiozi on behalf of his Emelong Foundation, gathered deep support not only from the ordinary Akalites who witnessed the protest but from other Umuaka based associations including women groups and foreigners.
Umuaka Times regrettably gathered that the issue of rape seems to have come to stay in the community. Seriously fingered in this crime are motorcycle boys of Umuaka origin who rape girls of Umuaka origin either at gunpoint or with offensive weapons and thereafter, snap, video record the girls and share the video on several digital platforms on the internet. A recent one took place a few weeks ago where an Amakor girl (name withheld) was said to have been invited by an Isiozi motorcycle boy to come and have a glimpse of another motorcycle boy who has expressed interest in her. The innocent girl was said to have dressed up and went to see the new “suitor.” On getting there, she was raped by some motorcycle boys who were said to have come from Uba and Isiozi. The motorcycle boys video recorded her and accused her of stealing a telephone belonging to one of the rapists. They got her stark naked in the full view of passersby and beat her up. All the pleas by the rape victim that she took no phone fell on deaf ears. The vide was thereafter shared on several digital platforms.
Commercial kidnapping is another crime that torments the community till date. Last week, the branch manager of UBA in Umuaka was kidnapped and before his kidnap, there have been stories of other successful kidnapping attempts in the community. All these waves of crime made the Emelong Foundation and other stakeholders to come up with the protest last week.
When Umuaka Times spoke with Chief Ibegbulem, he expressed deep worries over what will happen in Umuaka before and during Christmas period if no checks are put in place. He appealed to the stakeholders in the community to come up with an intervention that will save the community from hoodlums and social recklessness of motorcycle boys.
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