Again, Imo residents ignore Uzodimma’s plea not to stay at home

• Schools, banks, shops, markets, others closed, motorists out of roads

Again, despite the plea by Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, to the residents in the 27 local councils of the state, to henceforth, ignore the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) sit-at-home order, people in various parts of the state stayed at home yesterday, in perceived compliance to the order.

In Imo, motorists stayed away from the streets of Owerri and routes into the state. Also, school pupils and students stayed at home; shops, markets, banks, government offices were closed.

School children were seen playing football on their various streets.

But on Sunday, October 17, 2021, Uzodimma, while addressing worshippers after the church service at the Government House chapel, Owerri, pleaded with the people of the state to stop sitting at home any day the IPOB directed them, henceforth from Monday, October 18.

He urged the people to have confidence in the government in addressing the issue of agitations, stressing: “To achieve them, it must not be through violence or by killing ourselves.”

The governor also asked the people to be wary of those he called “political jobbers” who “hide under the guise of IPOB and ESN, hire bandits and import killers into Imo State to kill innocent brothers and sisters.”

IN another development, Uzodimma has described the death of the erstwhile military administrator of the state, Col. Tanko Zubairu, as a big loss to the state.

The governor’s feeling was contained in a statement at the weekend and signed by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary/ Media Adviser, Oguwike Nwachukwu.

The announcement of the death, The Guardian learnt, was made at the weekend by a family source.

The late Zubairu ruled the state from August 22, 1996, until he handed over power to Chief Achike Udenwa on May 29, 1999.

Uzodimma regretted that Zubairu died shortly after the first military administrator, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), passed on.