Hope Uzodinma, the governor of Imo State, has asked residents to ignore rumours of a planned attack, warning that his administration would crush anyone attempting to attack Imo people again.
He described reports making rounds that hoodlums were targeting some institutions and government facilities in the state as unfounded.
“Imo people and residents should go about their businesses without fear of molestation or harassment. What happened in the past weeks will never repeat itself again,” Uzodinma was quoted as saying via a statement issued on Sunday, May 23, 2021, by his spokesman, Oguwike Nwachuku.
“We will crush anybody that attempts to cause mayhem or attack Imo people again. Government cannot surrender to blackmailers, hoodlums, and perpetrators of violence who have sworn to make the State ungovernable.”
Speaking after a church service at the Government House Chaplaincy in Owerri, Governor Uzodimma said that such rumours were designed to put fears in the mind of Imo people and assured them that no such thing would happen.
He also seized the opportunity to reiterate his earlier stand that those perpetrating the violence and evil are mostly not Igbo people but hired machinery, insisting that the government under his watch will not allow those who visited mayhem on the people to operate again in the state.
Uzodinma reiterated that over 400 of those who carried out the threats on the state in the past have been arrested and undergoing trials in the courts, adding, “the good thing there is that over 70 percent of them are not Igbos.”
While enjoining Imo citizens to “feel free so long as you are not a criminal,” Uzodinma advised those planning to visit the state with any form of violence to have a rethink as “government is more than ever ready and prepared to keep Imo safe and secured.”
