Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Enugu State chapter, says the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration has brought to an end the ugly reign of “unknown gunmen”, as well as the regular Monday sit-at-home.

Newsmen recalls that Governor Mbah had in his first executive orders upon assumption office, declared that the regular sit-at-home observed on Mondays would no longer be tolerated.

The government’s action has seen normal activities return to the coal city state on Mondays.

In a statement on Sunday, signed by Dr. Okey Adenyi and Rt. Hon. Bonaventure Onuh, the President Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Enugu State chapter and the Secretary, respectively, they urged the public to ignore claims made by Ohanaeze Youths Council.

The group said the statement urging Governor Mbah to prioritise security was ill-conceived and aimed at nothing other than clout chasing.

“For record purposes, prior to governor Mbah’s assumption of office, ‘unknown gunmen’ have been ravaging and wrecking different degrees of havoc within the state and its environs, while unceremoniously declaring and designating Mondays as ‘sit-at-home’ day while exhibiting total ignorance of the devastating consequences and effects in socio-economic affairs of the state,” the group stated.

It, however, observed that “under the current administration of Governor Mbah, ‘sit at home’ was fought to a still and now a thing of the past as the state government in collaboration with security agencies have crushed the notion of Mondays as ‘sit at home’ day and the good people of Enugu can be seen enjoying their constitutional right of freedom of movement unharassed and untrammeled.

“Indeed, normalcy has returned back to Enugu and these facts and many more other facts are glaring and attested by Ndi Enugu.

“Therefore, no amount of propaganda and paid media publication from the Ohanaeze Youths Council would change this narrative/facts.”

It further identified the high-powered CCTV cameras that had been deployed and installed in Enugu State, the state-of-the-art Command and Control Centre and the 150 patrol vehicles fitted with AI-embedded surveillance cameras, as major boost to security in Enugu State.

“Governor Mbah has raised the bar very high on the issue of security,” Ohanaeze noted.

On the allegations that South-East governors were sabotaging the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Igbo group remarked that “Governor Mbah has been a strong advocate for the release of Maazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention and he has been working tirelessly, in collaboration with other South-East governors, to secure a smooth release of Maazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“The Ohanaeze Youths Council should desist from making such unverifiable claims as such may have the likelihood of dampening the good spirits and efforts of the South-East governors in their pursuit for Maazi Nnamdi Kanu’s freedom.

“It was all over the news at the just concluded Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide election of the National Executives, that governor Mbah, while in his address emphasized on the need to continue to engage the federal government towards the release of Maazi Nnamdi Kanu.”

They urged “the teeming youths and children to strive and engage their lives in something meaningful and eschew every urge of making inflammatory statements capable of causing unrest and panic in our land.

“The energy dissipated in making unfounded allegations could, if properly channeled, better their lots.”