The police in Anambra State have accused residents of the state of unwillingness to provide information on gunmen terrorising the state.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Echeng Echeng, revealed this on Monday while speaking with journalists in Awka, the State’s Capital.
Mr Echeng maintained that the gunmen perpetrating the attacks in the state are not unknown as they are called.
“There is nothing unknown about the gunmen terrorising Anambra State. We have been trying to mystify something that is not just there,” Mr Echeng said.
“These people are not spirits. They live with us. They are our nephews, our cousins, our brothers, and they live in our communities. We know who they are,” he said.
According to him, “the narrative that the gunmen are Fulani herders is not true. The people operating as gunmen are Igbos.”
“These criminals live among the people. The major challenge police are having in the fight against the gunmen in Anambra State is that residents, especially community leaders in the affected communities, are not giving information about the identities of these killer men to us.
“We should be able to come up with information of what is happening in our communities, not glorifying them and tagging them as unknown gunmen,” Mr Echeng added.
Mr. Echeng also debunked the claim that the gunmen live in the forest and added that they are ordinary individuals who usually return to their communities after perpetrating an attack.
