York Street Aba, once dreaded hard drugs spot, now transformed into useful busy motor park

…Residents, visitors move around without fear
…It was then a horrible area to go near
By Ugochukwu Alaribe

YORK Street is well known to everyone resident in Aba, the commercial city of Abia State. It is in the heart of the city.

It was known not for good but for its notoriety, a spot for hard drug business, phone snatching, and other criminal activities in the city. Visitors to the city were warned against going to the notorious York Street.

All manner of hard drugs were traded openly, unchallenged. Everybody, including security operatives, dreaded York Street then. It was totally under the control of local drug users and sellers.

Daily, one could see miscreants openly sniffing all sorts of hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and cannabis, among others, while others, under the influence of the drugs, sleep off on any available spot. It was simply a dreaded place occupied by hard drug sellers and users. They were always found sleeping on the road in broad daylight after consuming hard drugs. The consumers slept and woke up with hard drugs, looking unkempt like mentally-deranged men with smelly mouths.

Residents and visitors to the city dreaded York Street because of the many cases of attacks on unsuspecting people who are dispossessed of their phones and other valuables.

Even members of the elite club, the Recreation Club, Aba, located at the entrance of York Street, dreaded the area. Many of them had bitter experiences with the “Yorkers.” Groups and individuals who had events at the Recreation Club had to share their food with the drug addicts or risked being attacked.

It could be rightly said that about 70 per cent of violent crimes, including armed robbery and kidnapping, that were going on then were fuelled by the hard drug business at York Street. There was also this belief that most mentally-ill people in the city developed mental illness from consuming hard drugs at York Street.

A transporter at the Aba main motor park, who gave his name as Chikodili Eze, alleged that the drug business at York Street was sponsored by barons who employed small boys who sold the hard drugs for them. It was a thriving business that yielded huge returns to the barons. This allegation could have some elements of truth because police were afraid to raid the place, and anytime they mustered the courage to do that and make arrests, they were released in no time.

Most times, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, policemen, soldiers, and members of the Abia State Vigilante Services, then known as Bakassi Boys, usually visited the area to arrest the small boys selling hard drugs for the barons. But those arrested usually returned to their ‘duty post’ within hours after their bosses had allegedly settled with their captors.

According to Chikodili: “The drug business was done in the open, in broad daylight. You think it was a secret business? No, the boys were not afraid of anybody,not even the NDLEA, police, or soldiers, because they knew they would be released when arrested. Within hours of the arrest of the boys, you would see them return to York to continue their businesses.’’

Most of the shops lined up along York Street were filled with miscreants who sleep, dream, and eat hard drugs. Even women were not spared from the illicit business. The fear of York Street was the beginning of wisdom for most residents and visitors to Aba.

Not many, including those directly affected by the activities in the area, dared to talk about the criminal activities for fear of attack from miscreants and the drug barons. Nobody dared to walk through York Street, which links Asa Road and Park Road from the popular Aba town hall, until 6:00pm. Most people who dared in broad day light even had bitter stories to tell.

York Street was in a world of its own, and the hard drug sellers and consumers were law unto themselves. They were completely in charge of the territory.

A resident of Aba relived his experience of how he lost his phone after transacting business at the Aba South licensing office. “I visited the Aba South motor licensing office and decided to use the York Street to link Park Road from the Aba town hall. Midway, somebody snatched my phone and fled into the crowd of dirty-looking young men. I couldn’t pursue him because nobody even saw what happened. I was only lucky he didn’t take my big Android phone. After that incident, I avoided the area because people were questioning why I even took the route.”

However, the situation changed for good. York Street has been transformed to a busy motor park, where legal and genuine daily activities go on. It took the courage of the former state Command of the NDLEA, Mrs. Florence Ezeonye, to sack the hoodlums and set in motion the action of the State Government to take over and change York Street to a useful place. The drug agency raided and took over the notorious hard drug spot, ending the era of drug sales and criminal activities in the area.

A trader who lives in that vicinity told SEV that “what went on in York Street was awful. We thank God that the government and the NDLEA finally saw the need to stop the hard drug business in the place. What took place here can only be imagined.”

Today, York Street hosts a motor park for intercity buses and other businesses, as drug dealers have been sacked from the area. The retail drug market has disappeared as the place wears a new look. Residents and visitors throng York Street, going about their businesses without fear.

Speaking on the development, Chairman, Civil Liberties Organization, CLO, Aba Unit, Prof Charles Chinekezi, blamed the security agencies for allowing what he described as a criminal enterprise to thrive for too long.

“York Street was an eyesore and terror to the people. We cried out to the government, but they acted as if they never knew what was taking place at York Street. Now, the drug business has been sacked at York Street; everything must be done to ensure that the barons are stopped from establishing their evil trade anywhere in the city.”

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