By Charles Igbo
After raising tension and expectations in the State very high, Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, disappointed.
It was an anti-climax.
A few days ago, the Governor had spit fire, literally. Angered by the insecurity in the State, he announced he would name those behind it. He said he would expose them by naming and shaming them.
He gave the date he would do that as January 3, 2022. He was to shift it to January 4, 2022.
Tension was raised high. And, so were expectations, Â especially, as 24 hours earlier, a statement signed by his Spokesperson, Oguwike Nwachuku, more than hinted those the Governor was likely to name.
Earlier before Nwachuku, Commissioner for Information, Declan Mbadiwe, at a Press conference, had insisted the Governor would name and shame those involved. He said the Government had enough credible and solid evidence to nail then.
However, came the D-day. And the Governor disappointed. He failed to name names. And he failed to shame anybody. The opposition is having a good laugh, as if saying, “We told you he dares not.”
But even then, that the Governor failed to name names did not take many by surprise. The issues involved are too serious to reduce to ‘name calling.’
When he said he would mention names, not a few people felt he had shot himself on the foot.
Others felt that he would destroy any case he had if he did so.
Here are why.
Even though the Governor is the Chief Security Officer of the State, he is not an investigative officer. He is not the Police Commissioner of the State. Nor the State Director of the Department of State Security, DSS. They are the ones who carry out investigations. They are the ones who, in the Nigerian manner, parade suspects.
Any information they give the Governor is regarded as privileged information. They are the only ones who can choose to make their investigations public or not.
Even then, only the Court of Law can pronounce one guilty or not.
Many people were of the opinion that a barage of law suits would have followed if the Governor had mentioned names. That, they said, would have been to the advantage of those whose names are mentioned, especially, as many people had guessed the names likely to be mentioned.
Finally, good reasoning prevailed. The Governor did what he should have done before. Leave security people to finish their investigations, and take it up from there.
He backtracked.
Speaking to stakeholders who had assembled to listen to him, he told them he had decided not to mention names so as not to corrupt investigations; that he had decided to allow Security Operatives to do their job. But his fingers still pointing to a direction – former Governor Rochas Okorocha.
He said Okorocha should allow him to rule the State. He asked him to behave like other former Governors of the State who are not angling to rule the State forever, or to rape it.
The question is: Given the high profile names being bandied about, would security operatives be able to name them publicly.
The Governor believes so. He says anybody implicated by the confessions of those arrested by Security Operatives, will be arrested and prosecuted.
The people are waiting.
