Following a tip-off, the Abia State security outfit, Operation Crush, Monday, apprehended three cattle rustlers in Ohiya community in Umuahia South Local Government Area.
Briefing newsmen in Umuahia, on Monday, the Special Adviser to the state governor on Security Matters, Macdonald Uba, said the arrest was because of the swift action of Operation Crush, stating, “We have a very strong farmers-herders committee, who got the tip-off and forwarded the intelligence to the Operation Crush team. They swiftly went and made this arrest, and the suspects have since been profiled by the Director-General of State Security Services.”
Uba expressed his happiness in the arrest, noting, “We all know what would have happened if those cattle were rustled, and the effect it would have had on the Ohiya community and the problems it would have occasioned.’
According to him, “This is to state that Abia State, under the leadership of Governor Alex Oti, will yield no ground to criminals, most especially those who will make life unbearable for the citizens of Abia State.
“If not for the intervention of Operation Crush, the intention was to rustle the cattle from their fellow Fulani herdsmen. That would have created the impression that the Ohiya community had rustled the cattle.
“We will learn a lesson from what has happened to others. And, that is the sequence for which the Abia State Security outfit is trying to take. We will use what has happened to others to learn how to solve such issues within our state,” Uba said.
When asked if anyone was arrested on the side of the intending buyers, Uba said, “That is on the part of the police to carry out that further arrest. We have their phones.
“We have other information that would further lead to the arrest of the Alhajis who would have bought the cattle from them.
Also speaking, the traditional ruler of the Hausa community in Abia State, Sarkin Hausawa, HRH Eze Yaro Danladi, regretted the actions of the rustlers, stating, “One could imagine what action the owners of the cattle would have had on the Ohiya community.
According to the rustlers, one of them who is a herder sold the plan to them stating, “We planned to take one cattle, but the Fulani owners are claiming five.”
PUNCH.
