Five out of the seven local government areas in the Anambra South Senatorial Zone, according to Anambra State Commissioner of Police Aderemi Adeoye, are now free of insurgent control.

While working to completely eradicate terrorism in the state, the command is being tactical in its approach to prevent collateral damage, according to the commissioner, who spoke to journalists in Awka on Friday. Adeoye claimed that the command has used strategies that are enabling it to advance against the insurgents.

He said, “This insurgency problem is not against non-indigenes as people think. They kidnap their own people and ask for ransom, and if you don’t pay, they kill you there. Ninety-five percent of their victims are their own relatives. The other five percent are travelers who, due to a lack of knowledge of the area, run into them. Our advice is to always use the expressway.

Speaking further, Adeoye said: “We are working to gradually reclaim all these areas that the insurgents have turned into their hideouts because of natural forests, harsh topography, difficult terrain, and others. They take refuge in that place and launch attacks from there, but now it is very difficult for them to launch such attacks and come out alive.”

According to him, all seven local government areas that are in Anambra South were once under the control of insurgents.

“But now other parts of the state are safe except Nnewi South and a few areas in Ihiala. So out of seven local government areas, we have reclaimed five, and we are working on liberating the remaining two. Incidentally, those two have links to Imo. It got so bad that even their traditional rulers fled the communities,” he explained.

The Commissioner of Police asserted that the activities of the insurgents have been checked to a reasonable extent.