Due to rising insecurity across the country, Imo State House of Assembly, yesterday, passed a bill for a law to supplement the 2021 budget with N31,909,038,590.
Presenting the bill before the house, the Majority Leader, Chief Kanayo Onyemaechi (Owerri West), said the passage became necessary due to the security situation of the state.
Onyemaechi said it was necessary that more money be applied and expended to take care of mainly security and other services.
The lawmaker pointed out that the supplementary appropriation did not increase the total 2021 budget size.
The Guardian learnt that a clean copy of the bill would be presented to the governor for assent.
HOWEVER, Chairman of Imo State Traditional Institutions, Eze Emma Okeke, and other monarchs in the state have condemned the gruesome murder of two of their members on Tuesday by gunmen.
The monarchs were killed in a stakeholders’ meeting with about 18 others at Nnenasa, Njaba Local Council of the state. Many other participants were injured.
Those killed are Obi I of Okwudor Autonomous Community, Eze Anayochukwu Durueburuo, and Eze Sampson Osunwa of Ihebineowerre Autonomous Community.
In a statement signed by Okeke, yesterday, the monarchs expressed shock by the dastardly act of the hoodlums.
The statement reads: “The leadership and members of Imo State Traditional Institutions received, with rude shock and deep pains, the news of the gruesome murder of two traditional rulers and injuring of scores of others in Njaba, when their meeting venue was invaded by yet-to-be-identified gunmen, on Tuesday, October 19, 2021.”
“This killing adds a new twist to the prevailing insecurity in the state and South East at large. We condemn this cold-blooded murder and call for peace and restoration of normalcy.”
IN the same vein, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned the killing of monarchs and other innocent citizens in Imo.
The group claimed that those perpetrating the heinous crimes in the state were hoodlums on the payroll of a few politicians.
It observed that the idea of attributing the killings and other criminalities in the state to its security arm, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), had become worrisome.
IPOB’s Director of Media and Publicity, Emma Powerful, stated yesterday: “We, the global family of IPOB, condemn the continuous murder of our people, especially the two traditional rulers, because Hope Uzodimma warned Imo traditional rulers not to hold a meeting of any kind in the state.
“Uzodimma has been using the military to eliminate our innocent youths, claiming he is killing IPOB members.”
