A'Ibom: Gov. Umo Eno Disbands Notorious Crowd Control Squads Over Unhealthy Rivalry, Public Nuisance
By Uyime BASSEY
Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has tactically disbanded the various crowd control squads which were recognized by the immediate past administration in the state.
The disbandment was disclosed by the governor during the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed commissioners and special advisers, held on Thursday at the Government House Banquet Hall, Uyo.
The governor said though he is not totally disbanding the groups, he is only collapsing them to work together under the newly created Ministry of Internal and Waterways Security.
“This Ministry (Internal and Waterways Security) will ensure that we collapse all the various groups that we’ve had in this state before now. All of the groups that have been available - crowd control, all of that will now come under the ministry.
“And everyone will drop their 'Umo Eno Arise,' 'Umo Eno Traffic Control,' 'Umo Eno this.' All of that will be dropped and the ministry will now properly profile them to work with the new ministry of Internal and Waterways Security.
“We have had occassions where we go out for event and the various groups begin to fight themselves. We have had occassions where we go out for events and these groups will fight law enforcement agents. We don’t think that as a state we should encourage that. If we continue to encourage these groups, in the next few years we will begin to have serious rivalry that we may not be able to contend.
“While we are not disbanding them, we are saying that they should come under the supervision of the Ministry of Internal Security. All of them should drop their toga and just let us use them for crowd control. They will be trained, they will be profiled and we will now have them do the work we want them to do.
“No more in any of our public functions do we want to have splinter groups fighting themselves and causing trouble at those events.”
It would be recalled that the various crowd crontrol squads have been breeding unhealthy rivalry amongst themselves which has resulted in fights and public nuisance at government events.
Our correspondence reports that one of the splinter groups named 'Only God' headed by a certain Felix Ekuri, a Cross River born former Special Assistant to the immediate past governor, Udom Emmanuel in September 2022, had during a state government function at Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resort engaged in a fierce brawl with police officers at the entrance of the hotel.
This resulted in teargas canisters being shot at Ekuri by policemen before they could successfully repel and disperse him and his rampaging boys.
Repeated calls on the former Governor by some government officials and other concerned Akwa Ibom people to sack Ekuri or relief him of some of the powers he was vested in fell on deaf ears as the squad reigned terror on those against his squad’s activities.
