The crime-bursting governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, has received an overwhelming support from Anambra indigenes in Lagos who rallied around him at the weekend and pooled N500 million to sup­port the great job he is doing in providing efficient and ef­fective security in the state.
Leading the pack of the state’s leading industrialists and illustrious citizens at the fundraising ceremony held at the MUSON Centre in Lagos to shore up the state’s financial capacity to combat criminals was the Chairman of Coscharis Group, Chief Cosmas Maduka, whose cash donation spurred other prosperous sons and daughters of the state to donate generously to the cause.
Setting the tone for the cer­emony with his welcome ad­dress cleverly entitled: Securing the Dream of a New Anambra State, Obiano explained that on assumption of office, he made the security of lives and proper­ty of Ndi Anambra the priority of his administration because he had realized that humanity was threatened by insecurity all over the world.
“There is the ISIS challenge in the Middle East and the threat of Boko Haram in Nige­ria and neighbouring West Af­rican countries. In cities, towns and communities across Nige­ria, the threat of violent crimes and kidnapping has caused a lot of sleepless nights among our people. Happily, in the past six months of my administration in Anambra State, Ndi Anam­bra have slept with their two eyes closed,” Obiano observed, drawing applause from the au­dience.
The governor further ex­plained that the Lagos fundrais­ing which came on the heels of a similar effort in Abuja, where the state had realised N100 million was part of his overall efforts to secure the new at­mosphere of freedom that his administration had ushered into Anambra State, pointing out: “We are gathered here to secure the Dream of a New Anambra State.”
The governor, who also re­vealed that the event had given him the opportunity to give an account of his stewardship to Ndi Anambra residents in La­gos, delicately traced the secu­rity challenges that his admin­istration inherited in Anambra State to a time beyond the vast reaches of memory.
“Ndi Anambra, our people have suffered from general insecurity and criminals for a long time. Long before kidnap­ping became a big business in Anambra State, we had lived in an endless period of fear of armed robbers and brigands of all kinds,” the governor observed, recalling that at a time, the people were so op­pressed by criminals that they adopted unorthodox methods to fight the scourge, leading to the emergence of the dreadful Bakassi Boys and the extra-ju­dicial killings that marked that period.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is gratifying to see that our story is different today. We have ef­fectively retrieved Anambra State from the gangsters that once drove our great sons and daughters away from home and made it impossible for inves­tors to remember Anambra in their investment plans. We have chased away the enemies who forced our people to do Igba nkwu nwanyi (traditional mar­riage) in Lagos,” Chief Obiano explained, pointing out that Anambra’s changing story had started to attract big time inves­tors to the state.
According to him, statistics from the newly established Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) revealed that the state had received about 120 enquiries from investors across the world in the past four months of his administration.
He said: “On May 7, this year, I commissioned the Coched Farms Project at Anaku in Ayamelum Local Govern­ment Area which has the ca­pacity to produce 120,000 metric tons of rice and create over 1,000 jobs. On Tuesday last week, my administration attracted over $220 million investments. These include in­vestments from Joseph Agro Limited that is investing $150 million in Agriculture and Car­dinal Developers and Trust Ltd. that is investing $70 million in the area of hospitality and tour­ism. Joseph Agro Ltd has a ca­pacity to produce 120,000 met­ric tons of rice. The company, in addition to Coched Farms Ltd, will almost completely erase Anambra’s rice supply defi­cit by 99 per cent. It will also create 10,000 direct jobs and about 25,000 indirect jobs for our people. “Similarly, Cardi­nal Developers and Trust Ltd. will create 400 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs. Ndi b’anyi, this is a great time to come from Anambra State.”
The governor further averred that with the sustained crack­down on criminals in the state, Anambra had regained its free­dom from the enemies of lib­erty and is ready once again to lead the charge for the return of Ndigbo as an economic power-bloc in the country since the civil war.
“We are fully aware that the journey ahead may be difficult and slow, but we are not look­ing for a quick fix. We shall be relentless in our push to expand the frontiers of excellence in Anambra State and beyond,” Oboano said.
According to him, “the sun has finally risen on Anambra State. There is a growing feel­ing that Anambra’s finest hour is finally here with us. It is in acknowledgement of this resur­gence of hope in our people that my team and I, decided that the time has come to awaken the consciousness of our people to the soft issues of governance.”

Obiano raises N500m for security