The security challenges being faced in some parts of the North are also happening in other parts of the country, an Igbo businessman who said he relocated from Kano to Abuja because of the security challenge in Kano, Chief Ernest Okafor said.

Okaffor told Weekly Trust yesterday that the situation in the South East is not in any way better.

Okafor, who said he visited his hometown, Nnewi in Anambra state for the new year celebration said he could not move freely at home due to security challenges bordering on kidnapping, armed robbery and car snatching with so many illegal arms in circulation.

"Few minutes after I arrived Nnewi through Onitsha, my 17-year-old son that I went with came to tell me that a car he noticed following us from Onitsha has parked near our house and the people in the car surveying the house. We kept an eye on the car. Immediately it left I drove to Awka the state capital for fear of being kidnapped or robbed.

"I started wondering that what is the difference between the east and the north I was running away from? In fact, if not for the way the police are trying here, our situation would have been worse than Borno and Yobe," he said.

When contacted on phone, Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ballah Magaji Nasarawa confirmed the attack at the drinking joint, adding, "On January 1st, one Uche Eze reported to the Central police station in Awka and said two people arrived on a motorcycle at Umukwa village square and opened fire at the people drinking there.