IZUNNA OKAFOR
The youths of Oba community in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State have denied forcing non-indigenes in the community to buy forms and pay for ID cards, in the name of resident permit.
This was in response to reports trending on various social media platforms, alleging that youths of the town organized themselves and created a resident permit, without any authorization or constitutional backing, and break into people’s home for the collection of the permit, beating-up or seizing property of people who fail to pay.
One of such reports read: “Oba youths organized themselves and created a resident permit, without any authorization or constitutional backing. They go about breaking people’s homes and carrying properties belonging to people for refusing to pay for the ID Card.
“They seize people on the road, seize their phone because they refuse to pay for id card, they extort people in the name of ID Card.
They said the resident permit is for non-indigenes of Oba residing in their town. The ID Card is 2000, they go as far as requesting 10k as late payment.
“They break into your home, beat you up, carry your property or you will transfer money.
However, reacting to the reports, the Youths President in the community denied the allegations as lie, adding that Oba is accepts non-indigenes and treats them well.
He, however explained that there was a recent policy initiated in a village in the community where non-indigenes are requested to provide a surety who will sign an undertaking to avail the tenant’s address, contact information and other necessary details anytime the tenant is declared wanted.
According to him, the reasons for the policy stem from different kinds of crimes and atrocities recently committed by some non-indigenes living in the community who escaped thereafter and have not been found since then.
He narrated how a tenant who is a non-native recently murdered a woman, and cut-off some of her private parts and fled the community; as well as how another tenant who is a non-native killed a fellow tenant after a brief quarrel, and also fled the community thereafter adding that none of the culprits have been found till date.
“There’s a particular thing that happened in one of the villages in our community where a tenant killed his fellow tenant, slaughtered the woman and took some of her private parts. And all the effort to cash this particular tenant was not successful. He ran away from Oba.
“Up till date, we’ve not been able to crash this particular tenant and the case was reported to the police.
“There had been a series of complaints concerning the activities of non-indigenes in that village. And so, they decided to set up a committee that has to see that every unknown indigene in this village has to come and register and bring a surety.
“If you commit anything and run away, you’ll be traced to your state or your village or wherever you come from. So this process has been on for up to a week now.
“I was not aware of it until I saw these posts on the internet about a village in Oba collecting money from non-indigenous in the name of resident permit.”
Continuing, he said, “And I want to make it known to non-indigenes and good people of Nigeria and Anambra state and Oba that there’s nothing like resident permit in our community.
“In Oba, there is nothing like forcing people to pay for resident permit. We don’t collect resident permit from non-indigenes in Oba. And even the form we are talking about, I have stopped it. I have called the village Chairman and asked him to stop it completely because of what I’m seeing on the internet that there’s a resident permit.
“We accommodate strangers in Oba. We don’t collect money from them in the name of resident permit, and I ask every village or any village that wants to have an account or that wants to monitor the activities of non-indigenes in their village to do it in the right way. Go to the police.
“Make sure that everything you are doing is acceptable. Don’t collect money from anybody. If you want to provide a form for non-indigenes to a kind of checkmate their activities, do it for free.
“Don’t collect money from anybody, let them collect the form for free, fill it, bring a surety or bring somebody.
“I’m begging all the non-indigenes in Oba not to feel bad about this particular incident.”