Okorocha Attacks Uzodinma, Says IPOB, Politicians Not Responsible For Imo Attacks

Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has disagreed with his successor and current Imo Governor, Hope Uzodinma that aggrieved politicians are to blame for recent attacks in the state.

Rather, Okorocha said the inability of Uzodinma in managing the affairs of the state as well as the challenges of governance is responsible for the attacks.

It will be recalled that Governor Uzodinma has alleged that politicians were behind Monday’s attack on the police station as well as correctional center facilities.

He added that he has evidence on those responsible and will forward his report to the federal government for further action.

The former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu had also blamed members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for the attack.

However, Okorocha on Thursday, tackled Uzodinma, labelling his submission on the attacks as nothing but lies.

He added that the incumbent Governor should have asked for help and advise on how to manage the security situation in the state as well as on how to keep IPOB members peaceful.

Speaking further on how he tamed IPOB during his tenure as Imo State Governor and achieved peace, Okorocha said “we applied wisdom in the sense that we talked with the traditional rulers, the youth leaders and made them to see reasons.

“That is the way to go, engaging them with issues but this idea of bringing in Airforce, army as a first measure, whoever is saying politicians are involved is trying to politicize 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.”

He said if Uzodinma had reached out to him on how to handle the security challenges currently plaguing the state, he would not have hesitated in providing help.

“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.

“During my time, we collected more than a 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 our children,” he noted.

Okorocha also called on the security agencies to stop fighting the air and tackle the challenges of insecurity holistically, noting that unnecessary pressures are being heaped on the police and the military instead of tackling poverty and injustice in the land.

“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 it is going on, and as long as young men wake up in the morning and there is no job and poverty ravaging the system, there is little or nothing the armed forces can do because it is a growing thing,” he stated.

Meanwhile, a former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has disclosed how the secret police warned the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma multiple times about pending attacks in the state.

Amachree added that the DSS also alerted the Police in the state about the pending attacks but both the Governor and the Police failed to act on the intelligence information until the attacks were carried out on Monday.

The former DSS Assistant Director made this known on Thursday when he featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.

He disclosed that the DSS had passed actionable intelligence to the police on the possibility of the attacks but the warning was discarded by the Police authorities in the state.