Imo Govt, Okorocha Trade Words Over Attacks

The Imo State government yesterday accused former Governor Rochas Okorocha of being behind Monday’s attacks on the police command headquarters and the correctional centre.

But the former governor urged Governor Hope Uzodimma to stop politicising security matters.

Okorocha, who represents Imo West Senatorial District, said Uzodimma should rather seek his counsel on how to deal with criminality.

Imo Commissioner for Information Declan Emelumba claimed the former governor engaged thugs whom he had granted amnesty to unleash violence on the state.

He said the aim was to force the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in Imo.

Uzodimma had on Wednesday, while speaking on Channels, blamed aggrieved politicians for the attacks, but he did not name anyone.

Emelumba said Okorocha sponsored some northern youths who called for the declaration of a state of emergency in Imo barely hours after the attacks.

He alleged that the former governor wanted to get back at Uzodimma for insisting on the implementation of the White Paper that indicted the Senator for alleged looting and land grabbing.

“Recall that the man had gone to court to stop the commission from sitting. When that failed, he approached Governor Uzodimma to disband the panels.

“When that failed, he resorted to violence to repossess property government had sealed. That is the motive for the attacks,” the commissioner said.

According to him, Monday’s attacks were orchestrated to portray Uzodimma as an incompetent governor.

Displaying a purported copy of a press statement by the northern youths where they castigated Uzodimma but praised Okorocha, Emelumba said it was not rocket science for people to know the person behind the attacks.

He added that it was not a coincidence that the former governor had not condemned the attacks.

“How come the former governor is not condemning the attacks if not because it is his brainchild?” the commissioner asked.

Emelumba said the government had information about how a special adviser to the former governor procured the thugs who invaded Owerri on Monday.

Stop politicising attacks, Okorocha tells Uzodimma

Okorocha, who spoke in Jos, the Plateau State capital when he paid a condolence visit to the family of late Mrs Falicia Kanen Biskanga in Kuru, said instead of Uzodimma to face the challenges of leadership, he preferred to blame politicians.

Okorocha urged Uzodinma to consult stakeholders on how to make Imo better rather than being confrontational.

According to him, despite the challenges posed by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other agitators during his tenure, he was able to keep the state peaceful because he consulted widely.

Okorocha said: “The recent attacks on the police headquarters and the correctional centre in Imo State, the unending herdsmen crises, the banditry, the unending Boko Haram, kidnapping – these are all products of poverty and injustice.

“While I call for peace and understanding, we have a duty as leaders to correct these ugly issues of injustices and poverty which are ravaging the country.

“During my time as a governor, Imo State was very peaceful and these security issues and agitations were on. We applied wisdom in the sense that we talked with the traditional rulers, the youth leaders and made them see reasons.

“That is the way to go, engaging them with issues rather than this idea of bringing in Air Force and Army as a first measure.

“Whoever is saying politicians are involved is trying to politicise the whole thing. I don’t think that any sane politician will go and ask youths to shoot at the Police headquarters and all that.

“My message to him (Uzodimma) is that he should face the challenge of leadership and consultation at this time.

“If the governor consulted me and said: ‘how did you handle IPOB during your time that there was peace in Imo State? How did you handle the issue of kidnapping? How did you handle the issue of agitators?’ I would have told him.

During my time, we collected more than 100 AK-47 rifles from the youths who came for exchange willingly just by talking to them. We must always understand that these children are ours.

“We are overloading the military and the police in trying to help the situation when we have not tackled the issues of injustices in this country and the issues of poverty.

“As long as these continue in the form and shape they are going on, and as long as young men wake up in the morning and no job and poverty are ravaging the system, there is little or nothing the armed forces can do because it is a growing thing.

“The young men are coming out of schools, they are not getting jobs. We must address those.”

Gunmen attack another police station

Gunmen yesterday attacked the Mbieri Divisional Police Headquarters in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.

It was the third attack on a police station, coming 24 hours after another station in Ehime Mbano was set ablaze.

The gunmen were said to have freed suspects who were in custody.

One of the police officers, who fought back, was abducted while two officers sustained gunshot injuries, it was learnt. The missing officer later returned.

The gunmen also took away the phones belonging to suspects and the policemen at the station.

A police source said: “We resisted them but they overpowered us. They had more sophisticated weapons.

“They took all the phones they saw, released the suspects when they gained access and vandalised the police building.”

Police spokesperson Orlando Ikeokwu confirmed the attack, the sixth since February. Other stations that had been attacked are Obowo, Aboh Mbaise, Ihitte/Uboma, Isiala Mbano and Ehime Mbano.

Villagers disarm fleeing suspect

Residents of the Nkwerre community in Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State yesterday disarmed a fleeing inmate, Miracle Ajogu. They handed him over to the police.

The suspect was one of the 600 detainees who fled after gunmen attacked the police headquarters.

Miracle was held for allegedly killing his father during an argument.

It was learnt that the suspect’s presence created panic among the villagers who handed him over to the police.

A resident said: “Our people learned of his return and before we knew what is happening, he started moving around with a gun. We had to disarm and hand him over to the police.”

A police source said: “We have rearrested one Miracle Ajogu of Onusa Nkwerre in Nkwerre LGA. He murdered his father and was subsequently arrested.

“He was among the suspects that escaped from the state Criminal Investigation Department in Owerri on Monday when the hoodlums attacked the headquarters.

“The suspect has been rearrested in his village where he fled to. The operatives of the Nkwerre Divisional Police Headquarters rearrested him and he is cooperating.”

Police spokesman, Orlando Ikeokwu, confirmed the re-arrest.

-NATION