THE Anambra state police command has marked for demolition 17 buildings identified as gunmen’s hideouts in the state. These hideouts are located in the Uli community, Ihiala local government area.

The police said it was also looking out for any other buildings in areas harbouring criminals and gunmen, and disturbing the state’s peace.

The Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, representing the Area  Commander of Ihiala, Bassey Christopher, at the Uli Peace and Security Convention on Saturday, April 29, said, “Any building harbouring criminals and gunmen will be demolished, and about 17 of them have already been marked for demolition. We are not going to spare anyone or any building, irrespective of who the owner is.”

Echeng, tagging the security operations in the community, ‘Action All The Way’, declared that the peace and security summit and convention was the last chance for criminals to leave Uli town.

“We advise the landlords that own those buildings to chase those criminals out of their homes,” he said.

There had been several reports of gunmen attacks in Anambra state and other parts of the southeast region. In 2022, the Anambra state government ordered the demolition of a structure in Idemili local government area suspected to be harbouring the gunmen. 

Scores of police and other security personnel had been killed in southeastern states since the beginning of 2021 in targeted attacks, according to local media tallies.

 According to the Nextier SPD Violent Conflict Database, attacks by non-state actors in the southeastern region between 2021 and 2022 killed 83 civilians and 36 security personnel in only the first quarter of 2022. Of this number, Anambra state accounted for 40.9 per cent of death cases recorded in that period.