Inhabitants of over 22 communities in Inikorogha, Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State, on Wednesday, staged a peaceful protest over plans to withdraw the security agencies maintaining peace in the area.

The protesters who came out in large numbers carried different placards with various inscriptions such as, “Come to our aid, Mr Governor”; We need peace to do our business in Inikorogha”; and “Armed robbers come here to rape & rob our wives and women” among others.

Addressing journalists on Wednesday, the Chairman of Inikorogha community, Friday Benson, appealed to Governor Godwin Obaseki to see to the extension and increase of security personnel in the community instead of withdrawing them.

He said, “What we are saying in essence is that nobody should truncate the effort of the governor with plans to remove security operatives from our communities. We know some highly placed individuals are behind this move but it won’t work. Security has greatly improved in the last one and a half years.

“In the past, we suffered serious attacks by criminal elements but now, we have a strong presence of security personnel with the deployment of special forces at Mile 3. Their presence has halted the activities of unscrupulous elements in the area.

The Chairman of the Elders Council, Philip Polo, called for more deployment of security operatives while commending the governor for the road construction in Inikorogha.

He added, “We want to first of all thank Governor Obaseki; he has performed well in terms of infrastructure but sadly that has given birth to some unscrupulous criminals that have made Inikorogha uninhabitable.

“But when the security personnel came, everybody was relieved. The situation now is that these same people are trying to pull the strings from behind. We have information that they are trying to ensure that the special forces are withdrawn,” he added.

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