By Gabriel Amalu
With the federal and Imo State governments showing lack of capacity to protect lives and properties of the residents of Imo State, perhaps it is time for the people to turn to God for divine intervention. Otherwise, what can the people of the state do when those that hold the levers of power have become clueless in the midst of mass murder of unarmed citizens by bandits and so-called agents of the state?
The most recent of such gruesome mass murders took place in Awomama, Orlu Imo State. Indeed, according to a human rights organisation, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), between 800 to 900 citizens of Imo State have been killed under the watch of the government of Hope Uzodimma. While it may be preposterous to blame the governor exclusively for the killings, considering the constitutional challenges faced by governors on security, that report should alarm the governor.
According to Intersociety, those killed in Awomama were wedding guests returning from a weeding. In their report, they named the wedded couple, the place of the wedding, their family and villages, the persons killed, those fatally wounded, those missing and those arrested. Yet, in the account of the governor, those killed were dreaded terrorists killing and maiming residents of the state. While the governor claims it was the DSS on security mission that killed the criminals, the people claimed Ebubeagu security men killed guests returning from a wedding.
Such a controversy under the nose of the state governor is outrageous and disheartening. As far as the people of Awomama are concerned, the governor is lying and is propagating a false claim by the DSS that those killed were criminals. This column supports the call for an independent inquiry to unearth what happened in Awomama, Imo State. The state government should be interested in such public inquiry, unless it has something to hide. If it doesn’t, the governor should immediately convene a judicial panel of clearly independent persons to find out what happened.
The governor has nothing to lose if the information given to him by the security agencies turns out to be false but he has everything to lose if he allows the controversy to linger for the rest of his tenure. He should know by now that the controversy will not go away; rather it will mutate into all manner of conspiracy theories most of which would revolve around his person. The leadership of DSS must also set up an administrative inquiry to determine whether her officials in the state are telling the truth, or involved in the alleged cover-up.
If the leadership of the DSS is unwilling to take such steps, the president must show interest and invite the Attorney General of the Federation to institute an inquiry into the activities of the state DSS and the findings sent to the president and subsequently made public. Under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari, there have been too many killings by armed terrorists and bandits, and a state institution like the DSS should not be associated with such mass murders, or cover-up as claimed by the people.
It should also worry the state government that the people of the state are pointing accusing fingers against Ebubeagu, set-up to deal with security challenges occasioned by armed insurgency by foreign elements that attack people in the region. If the allegations are true, then it means that a security outfit set up to protect the people from external aggressors has become the problem of the people. If the allegations are true, then the fish is rotten from the head.
It is such belief that the state is unwilling to save the people that made them to go into the streets to demonstrate. If those gruesome killings were truly carried out by Ebubeagu security men, then Imo State has given a bad publicity to the call for state police. As part of the answer to the insecurity that has befallen our dear country, there are stringent calls for state police, and the security outfits operating in the regions are supposed to be a model of what the state police would look like.
Perhaps, the controversy surrounding the emergence of Governor Uzodimma, may be part of his challenges in governance. For many in the state, the governor remains a usurper despite the judgment of the Supreme Court, upon which he became the governor, instead of Emeka Ihedioha, sworn in as the winner of the state governorship election in 2019. So, could the deteriorating security situation in the state be caused by those opposed to his government, as he has claimed?
Even if that claim is true, it is expected that after being in charge of the state for about two years and six months, the governor should have found a way to deal with the fall-out of his controversial emergence as state governor. To keep blaming political opponents while the state he governs is deteriorating into a state of anarchy is unacceptable. Indeed, despite the usual promises to expose those behind the perennial killings in the state, nothing of such has happened. And naming political opponents is not enough; the governor should ensure that any person involved in the prevalent mayhem faces the law.
To do otherwise is to court the acronym of cluelessness. This column also urges Igbo leaders to examine the possibility of mediating the crisis between state actors and non-state actors in the state. Without prejudice to the right of the security agencies to deal with any acts of outright criminality in the state, there is no doubt that the emergence of Uzodimma generated a lot of political tension that have affected social stability in the state. Such social tension can be doused by such intervention, while dealing with criminality is left in the hands of security agencies.
The incremental descent into anarchy in Imo State, also calls for prayers. For while the Book of James 2:26 says: “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead”, the Psalmist on its part in Chapter 127:2 notes: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain; if the Lord does not guard the city, the watchman watches in vain.” For this column, whatever can be legitimately done to bring peace to Imo State should be done.
Those in government have the responsibility to protect lives and property and they should brace up to their responsibility. In case they have forgotten, section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 constitution provides that: “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Governor Hope Uzodimma, and President Muhammadu Buhari owe the people of Imo that even as they seek God’s intervention.
Credit: TheNation
