It has been more than one year since some terrorists pretending to be Biafran freedom fighters began their reign of terror in Imo State. Among areas most affected by the attacks from the hoodlums include; the State capital, Mbaise, Ngor-Okpala, Okigwe areas, Mbaitoli, Orlu, Orsu, Oru-East, Oguta and Ohaji-Egbema areas. Ideato North, though a strategic area, being that it sits on boundaries between Imo and Anambra, had before now been free from these attacks. Akokwa, the most central and most developed of all the clans that make up Ideato has been among the most peaceful places in Imo State.
We were happy and having fun. Even at the peak of the disturbances, I gathered the courage to visit home a few times, even though I was an outspoken critic of their criminal acts presented as freedom fighting. At that time, I had some confidence that as long as I found my way to Akokwa, that “nothing go happen”. I would sneak into Owerri and move around during daytime and leave to Akokwa late in the evening to sleep over because I felt more secured there than in Owerri. Even the senseless sit-at-home orders were not that effective in Akokwa, and nobody was attacked.
But in the last few weeks, everything has been turned upside down in my beloved LGA. The relative peace we enjoyed in our beloved hometown has been shattered. Blood, destruction and plumes of smoke have become our lot, and people are gradually deserting the usually bubbling semi-city of Akokwa, out of fear.
In what might be one of the worst attacks recorded in Imo State recently, the home of Ikenga Ugochinyere was invaded, leaving his uncle and two other innocent souls dead, with properties worth hundreds of millions of Naira or more, destroyed. Just as we are still reeling from that shock, news filtered in that the LGA transition committee chairman of Ideato North was kidnapped in his Ndimoko house in Arondizuogu. His house was also said to have been razed to the ground. It is a sad development.
I spoke out and will continue to speak out about Ikenga Ugochinyere’s own attack and I will also condemn without reservations, the attack on this APC chieftain and ally of the State governor. It doesn’t matter if Chris Ohizu is an unfortunate pawn on some people’s chessboard, whereby the same people who launched the attack on Ugochinyere had to attack the APC chieftain in order to further deflect suspicion from the usual quarters. What is not debatable is that the man is a victim of the same mindless violence that has ravaged our dear State.
I agree with the school of thought which argues that insecurity cannot thrive for long in a State if some highly placed people in government are not either behind it or somehow benefiting from it. That government has every resources at its disposal to clear off these ragtag hoodlums in weeks, and the inability of the government to do this makes it clear that it is either the government is being sabotaged from inside or the government is, willfully or unwillingly, not doing enough.
It will only take a miracle for the 2023 elections to hold in Orsu LGA because the non-State actors have overrun that place. INEC has already stated that there are about three LGAs that election cannot hold in Imo. Some people believe that such situations could be exploited by politicians to manipulate election result by flooding these areas with security agents and controlling the voting outcome there by ensuring that only those favourably disposed to them would cast their votes.
Governor Uzodimma is the Chief Security Officer of Imo State. He has all the resources necessary for him to combat those behind these mindless attacks on our communities. He had deployed massive resources on this fight at great human cost to Ndimo, but we it doesn’t seem like anything has been done. I was one of those who felt that most of those criminals had either been killed or arrested. But it is either I was been too optimistic or that the original guys have been dislodged but are now replaced by another group of criminals.
My dear governor, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma should not listen to those people telling him that all is alright. The truth is that there is so much bloodletting in Imo today, that even if Imolites become incapable of asking questions about these blood, God will definitely ask questions of these destructions and killings going on in the State, and no other person will answer this question but the governor.
MAY IMO WIN!
