Tension In Imo As Governor Named, Shames Insecurity Sponsors

By Charles Igbo

Imo State is pregnant. It would deliver today, January 4, unless the Midwife says for safe delivery, let there be a delay in delivery. His assistants say the delivery will go on as scheduled.

The midwife is the Governor of the State, Senator Hope Uzodinma. Many people think he would abort the delivery. But, perhaps, they should perish the thought.

Uzodinma’s Commissioner for Information and  Strategy, Declan Emelumba, on Tuesday, January 3, confirmed the Governor would go  ahead.

Many people urge otherwise.  They fear it could go awry. They think it could be controversial. And that its delivery may not bring unadulterated joy. It could breed bad blood, and a couple of other unpleasant consequences.

What is the pregnancy all about.

Buffeted by insecurity which  has hardly given the Governor a breathing space since his assumption of office, almost, he has decided to, as they say, “take the bull by the horn.”  He insists he would name and shame those who, allegedly, are sponsoring insecurity in the State.

For months, the Governor has held the view that the unprecedented insecurity in the State is a product of a well laid out plan by some politicians to make the State ungovernable for him. They taunt  when any insecurity occurs.  They present the State in the worst colors ever. And advice people to keep off.

But for God and the Governor’s tenacity in, and aggressive fight against insecurity, the State would have become ungovernable.

People were being killed on everyday basis. In the past few months, four Traditional  Rulers were killed – two, victims of kidnappers, two others, victims of gunmen who inexplicably opened fire on them at Njaba Local Government Area Headquarters where they were meeting.

It came to a climax a couple  of weeks ago when Security Operatives discovered camps of kidnappers where they not only killed victims, but engaged in cannibalism.

They were roasting their victims and eating their dead bodies.

When the camps were busted, a number of them, allegedly, 15, some reports say 30, were arrested.

The Governor’s resolve to name and shame is a consequence of the alleged confessions made by some of them. Emelumba says the Government has hard, irrefutable evidence to nail them.

A couple of months ago, Uzodinma had said he would name names. He did not. But the recent arrests, and the sheer savagery and atrocities discovered at the camps pushed him.

Just before Christmas when he addressed Civil Servants where he made them happy by announcing he would pay “13th month”, Uzodinma disclosed that he would name sponsors of insecurity in Imo on January  3, 2022, at the 6th Stakeholders meeting. He was to shift the date to January 4.

Many people think he will not do it, that he was just talking. But the incident of December 26, where Uche Nwosu, a son-in-law to former Governor Rochas Okorocha, who was a Governorship candidate for the Action Alliance, in 2019, after Uzodinma “snatched” the APC ticket from him, was arrested in the Church showed how serious both the Police and the Government had become. Nwosu, unconfirmed reports say, was arrested over the confessions made by a number of, alleged, bad boys arrested recently.

He was released after hours of interrogation. But January 4, is the D-day. People will be named and shamed.

Commissioner  Declan Emelumba, disclosed the Governor’s resolve in a statement in Owerri on Monday at a Press Statement.

Emelumba: “The Governor will use the occasion of the 6th edition of the Imo Stakeholders Forum to name those who are sponsors and financiers of insecurity in the state.”

According to the Commissioner: “The Government is in possession of crack evidence of the involvement of those responsible for insecurity in the State.”

Who will the Governor name? Many, especially, the opposition, think his political  opponents are the target. They say the confessions are fake. Already, Okorocha has accused him of trying hard to implicate him and members of his family.

However, not a few people think the Governor should not do it. They say he should not be the one to announce it. That the announcement should come from  Security Operatives. Said a source:

“Anybody the Governor names should prepare and go to court. The person should sue the Government.

Only the Court can declare one guilty or not.”

Today is here already.