Increase security in Imo, Governor Uzodinma urges FG

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By Ismail Auwal

Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, has called on the Federal Government to increase the security presence in the state.

He also appealed to the FG to give the security agencies necessary logistics support towards addressing the security challenges facing the state.

Uzodinma disclosed this yesterday while responding to questions from newsmen after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.

The governor noted that the appeal was coming on the heels of various attacks on police stations in the state.

He said, ‘’The situation in Imo State is now relatively calm. Every other support I asked for the President also approved and granted. You must have heard of the various banditry activities in Imo State and how even at a time few weeks ago, the Police Headquarters was attacked and a correctional services facility was also attacked, inmates released and since that time, there’ve been couple of breaches here and there.’’

The Governor stressed that the issue of banditry was something everyone must rise up to condemn and then support security agencies to be able to provide an enabling environment for people to go about their businesses, without fear of any molestation.

According to him, ‘’The job of security of a country cannot be left to security agencies alone. The job requires the citizenry to support security agencies through intelligence gathering, also government at all levels, including traditional leaderships, to support government because the bandits stay among us, the criminals live among us and if we’re not in position to report them, or report their activities to security agencies, then we are undoing ourselves.

‘’So I encourage everybody to see this as a collective challenge that all of us must join hands; whether you are from the local government, community level, to state, up to federal government, we must join hands because we don’t have another country. The only country we can beat our chests and call our own is Nigeria and we must work towards ensuring that the integrity of our country, the security situation in our country, is such that allows people, residents and citizens to go about their businesses without the fear of molestation.’’

Commenting on the Eastern Security outfit, he said ‘’Well, I believe in the rule of law and the Constitution has a procedure and the punishment for every criminal, if confirmed a criminal, is also defined in the established statues. So a criminal is a criminal, once confirmed, but what I don’t agree to is that anybody will want us to discuss and negotiate with confirmed criminals. What is important is making sure that the person has been confirmed to be a criminal and through due process, the confirmation came, you must face the law of the land.’’

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