The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma on Sunday said the resurgence of insecurity in Imo State is the handiwork of the opposition elements who are threatened by the successes recorded by his administration.
Addressing the congregation at the end of Church Service at the Government House Chapel Owerri, Imo State, on Sunday, the Governor said that the opposition was afraid of his modest achievements and would not allow the people to accept them.
“They have rather decided to put fears in the people by attacking individual houses, burning government institutions, to make people believe that they are still in charge,” the Governor said, adding that “God will stop them.”
He further explained that his government was “tracking those involved in the dastard act of killing and maiming of innocent people for no just cause.”
“Government has all it takes to match them force for force, killing for killing but will not do that as it is careful not to let blood and cause colossal damage and destruction.”
Uzodimma, however, said that “soon government will identify and separate those using the name of IPOB to perpetuate crime from those who are actual criminals, kidnappers and armed robbers.”
He noted that “citizens have the right to criticize government objectively, but not to take life and burn down government institutions and individual houses in the name of opposition or in any guise.”
The Governor reiterated that the priority of his government now was to recover and rehabilitate broken down infrastructure in the State and to restore back confidence of the people on the activities of government “as a way of assuring respect for government.”
He warned people involved in land grabbing and illegal allocation in Imo and emphasized that “it is only the Governor of a State that can allocate land and issue C-of-O for such allocation to be legal.”
The governor noted that even the Federal Government could not allocate any State land without reference to the State Governor, and that “no community has the right to allocate land or sign MOU with any person or group of persons on land without the consent of the Governor.”
To this effect, Uzodimma informed that soon the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning and the Owerri Capital Development Authority (OCDA) will embark on marking and demolition of structures on government land that were not properly allocated to the developers.
He used the opportunity to thank all APC faithful who were in Abuja for their National Convention that recorded huge success and pleaded with those who were inconvenienced one way or the other during the trip to bear with the Party and the organisers, promising that soon the wrongs will be corrected.
