Ochabrigade not my personal property — Okonkwo

Managing Director and Suprintendent-General of Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (Ochabrigade), Chief Kenneth Ositadinma Okonkwo,  has stated that people should desist from nursing the impression that Ochabrigade is his personal property .

Okonkwo further cleared the air saying that Ochabrigade is a state-owned agency and that he is only the pioneer head having established the para-military agency about a year ago . According to him, his position as pioneer head is temporal as the state Governor may decide to remove him from the agency for other crucial assignments .

This is coming on the heels of the protracted debate in the state House of Assembly as to whether the Ochabrigade Bill should be passed into law . Okonkwo who spoke with journalists at the Ochabrigade command headquarters in Awka Tuesday, further disclosed that he would not lobby for the bill to be passed into law but said that it was incumbent on the lawmakers to do the needful .

He said that those who were resolute to truncate the passage of the bill , were those who thrived in crime and criminality and that the agency was determined to fish and flush them out of the polity . According to him , the agency has stopped all forms of illegal  tax collection and extortion of all kind by those who disquised themselves as government revenue collectors .

The Suprintendent-General  further disclosed that the agency was currently recruiting about 100 officers and men to increase personnel inorder to meet the demands of the yuletide in terms of traffic control  and enforcement in collaboration with other security agencies .

He therefore noted that Ochabrigade was determined to rid Anambra state off criminal elements and also decongest the roads to ensure that holiday makers did not celebrate Christmas on traffic jams .