Members of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), in Imo State have raised alarm over increasing poverty and insecurity in the state.
The party expressed worries over the recent ugly incidents in the state which confirmed that insecurity still lingers, while poverty remained at the higher level in the state.
In a statement issued in Owerri, on Friday, by the State Party Publicity Secretary, Mr Ogubundu Nwadike, the party noted with dissatisfaction that in the recent days, there had been an increase of incidences of loss of lives and property in parts of the state, and illegal acts of extra-judicial killings, otherwise known as jungle justice.
They said: “the reported setting ablaze of three youths at Owerri Ebeiri area of Orlu a few days ago for alleged armed robbery, the reported attack by unknown gunmen on the Police Station located in Omuma in which some lives and property were reportedly lost, and the reported display of freshly cut human heads at Orie Okporo in Orlu area, are few instances of the lingering insecurity in the state.”
Nwadike pointed out that those evidence of palpable insecurity were steeped with the continued system of security operatives dehumanising citizens by forcing them to disembark from commuters, and private vehicles and walk long distances with both hands raised above their heads, in a reported bid to forestall any acts of insecurity.
According to him such acts that debase humanity are not in tandem with global democratic best practices while inviting that Nigeria is not at war and Imo State is not a police state.
On the issue of the closure of market at Orlu in Orlu Local Government Area, the party expressed dismay at the recent lockdown of markets in the state, charging Governor, Hope Uzodinma to reopen the markets to prevent the furtherance of both insecurity and poverty that are currently grossly ravaging the state and people.
He condemned the worrisome trend in the fresh vistas of insecurity which had culminated in the invitation of the military again by Governor Uzodinma to lockup some critical major markets in the state, particularly the Building materials market in Orlu, as punishment for the traders and market people for not opening the market for business.
“Our party frowns at the governor’s use of the military once again to clamp down on innocent citizens, who expressed their constitutional rights of freedom of choice to stay away from their business places on a particular day of the week or the month,” he said.
The statement said that the party’s concern in that regard could not be questioned as it had been discovered that the lingering insecurity had worsened the rate of poverty among citizens in the state.
He said: “Not only are vital man-hour wasted on very long traffic queues by motor vehicles at numerous police and military checkpoints, remotely causing infractions on the business and economic lives of the people, but also idle hands, and crime-minded people have consequently resorted to daylight robbery of shops and business places in parts of the state, resulting in the return of illegal and obnoxious jungle justice.”
The party expressed dismayed that in the face of all the incidences of insecurity and its attendant negatives, Governor Uzodinma had remained pitch silent, in spite of his role as Chief Security Officer of the state.
Nwadike said that the party condemned the fact that the governor could afford to look the other way, attending to other things, without him expressing concern for the loss of lives and property, and the shutting down of markets, the major source of livelihood for the people of Imo State.
The party, charged Governor Uzodinma to rise to the occasion and stem the rising tide of insecurity and worsening poverty in the state by, among other things, ordering the withdrawal of the military and opening the unlawfully closed markets for business activities to resume in them unhindered.
They also demanded that the governor as a matter of urgency should address the people of Imo State on the current wave of insecurity and rage of poverty in the state.
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