Imo assures northern residents of adequate protection

Okorocha cautions agitators, preaches united Nigeria

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, at the weekend, assured northerners resident in the state of adequate protection, informing them that they were ‘part and parcel’ of the state.

He gave the assurance during a meeting with the leadership of the Northern Community at the Government House, Owerri.

“This is where you live and do your business. You are stakeholders in Imo State. Sit in your houses and defend yourself and protect your house. Nobody will drive you away from the state

“As long as you are paying your taxes, you should enjoy all protection other citizens enjoy. So, do not panic, since you are not strangers. Once you are doing your business legitimately, you are from Imo State and not tenants.

I will give every protection or support I give to the Igbo man from Imo State to northerners resident in the state,” he said.

Leader of the delegation, Adamu Baba Sule, told the governor that they came to offer moral support and solidarity to the state government and pledged their cooperation in the state.

BESIDES, former Governor Rochas Okorocha has cautioned agitators for ethnic interests and division against such moves, saying their protests might lead the nation into deeper crisis.

He insisted that there could be no progress without peace and appealed to Nigerians to unite and make things work for a greater country.

Okorocha stated this after he was conferred with Outstanding Friend of Ibadan Award during the grand finale of the 2021 Ibadan Cultural Festival Celebration at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan at the weekend.

In a related development, a constitutional lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, has argued that securing the South East or any other region would be impossible without their participation.

Ejimakor, who is Special Counsel to Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, recalled that before the country became a unitary state, regional security was mostly within the purview of regional authorities and not the Federal Government, describing the arrangement as very successful.

“That arrangement was not by chance but by design. Nigeria’s founding fathers and the departing British colonialists knew too well that internal arrangement to secure a people without their participation could not work,” he said.

MEANWHILE, the Imo State Police Command has confirmed report of abduction of a Catholic priest, Reverend Marcel Izu Onyeocha of Mother Theresa of Golgotha Church.

The Guardian learnt that the ckleric, who also teaches at Imo State University, Owerri, was abducted on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road in Ihube, Okigwe.

Commissioner of Police (CP), Nasiru Mohammed, who disclosed that all tactical teams of the command had been activated to rescue the priest and arrest the culprits, however, sued for calm as the command was doing everything within its powers to ensure rescue of the victim.