Enugu State Government will in the coming days move against properties, whether private residences or business premises used for kidnap purposes.
A reliable government source exclusively revealed to Daily Sun that the move is in continuation of the determined effort of the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration to rid the state of all forms of crime and criminality.
The Enugu State House of Assembly had in November 2016 amended the Criminal Code Law of Enugu State, which was subsequently signed into Law by the former governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, on January 20, 2017.
Section 315 of the Criminal Code (Second Amendment) Law Cap. 30, Law of Enugu State, currently provides: “If the building or structure owned by the offender or any other person, who knows or ought to reasonably know that the building or structure is so being used for that purpose, the building or structure shall be demolished or forfeited to the State Government.”
However, the law, which is yet to be visited on offenders in the state despite security challenges, especially before the coming of the present administration, appears set to bite hard.
Upon enquiry on why the law was yet to take full force about eight years after, the government source who preferred not being named said the Mbah administration was already implementing it, citing the clearing of portions of the Ugwuoba Cattle Market and the New Artisan livestock market after kidnap victims and arms were recovered from the notorious places.
He stated: “The truth is that the current administration is not shying away from taking hard decisions and steps. But it also always wants to ensure that nobody suffers undue losses. Now, after due diligence, the government has compiled all the properties used for kidnapping purposes in the past few months and they will be going down one after the other sooner than anyone can imagine.
“Also, I can inform you that the government and security agencies have defeated the kidnap cells, including the most recent cell that used Sienna to pose as security agents. They would pretend as if they were legitimate officers arresting their victims. I can also confidently inform you that there are hardly any of the sparse kidnap incidents that have not been solved, even if we don’t make so much noise about them. That is why today, these criminals, including non-state actors, now know and refer to Enugu as Waterloo.”