BREAKING: Imo govt, Okorocha clash over attacks

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

However, the former governor urged Governor Hope Uzodimma to stop making politics on matters of national security concern.

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

“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.

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“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.”

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

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.