This second painful kidnap of schoolgirls in Dapchi, NorthEast of Nigeria, in truckloads, appears to reveal that there are no police or army checkpoints in that besieged part of our unhappy country.
But between Onitsha and Owerri, I dutifully counted 19 checkpoints manned by both police and army personnel on a recent trip.
On Wednesday, yes this last Wednesday, I counted 15 checkpoints between Owerri and Enugu-our regional and political capital in my growing up days, still beautiful and peaceful. I now ask: All these checkpoints that litter my eastern landscape, can’t they be redeployed to the North-East, so that our secondary school girls are not easily railroaded into trucks by terrorist Boko Haram into unknown destinations? Why occupy the East and leave the “war zone” totally bare, unmanned and so vulnerable — all in a bid to show government power where none is really needed? Kanayo Esinulo, Lagos
