ONE NIGERIA GROUP (ONG)

May 5th, 2021


PRESS RELEASE


UZODINMA'S PLOT TO FRAME UP IMO LEADERS MUST BE RESISTED

- HE SHOULD EXPLAIN HIS INVOLVEMENT IN THE FESTERING INSECURITY IN THE STATE

Since he came to power as the Governor of Imo State under very bizarre circumstances and through a roundly defective judgement, Senator Hope Uzodinma has been battling with legitimacy crisis. Imo people have generally refused to accept him as their Governor, and worse still, all efforts made by Uzodinma to procure political support through all manner of inducements have also come to naught. When he resorted to intimidation, suppression of political dissent, gagging of the press and indiscriminate arrests of critics, Imo people rose up in condemnation of such full-blown tyranny. He retreated.

Today, in a desperate quest for power consolidation, Uzodinma has resorted to state-sanctioned violence, crisis and terror so as to hold on to power, play the victim and frame up some leaders of the State who he feels are his political foes. This is the only way he thinks he can control the State.

From the inception of the crisis in Imo State, we have engaged high-powered intelligence gathering networks, who through their modules have made incontestable reports all of which implicate Uzodinma in the entire Imo insecurity debacle. However, it is unfortunate that Uzodinma has hurriedly compromised some officials of the Department of State Services, the military and the Police so that they could cobble together reports that corroborate his very fallacious claims and serve his political purposes. Further, part of this agenda is to arrest innocent citizens and torture them into accepting culpability in the ongoing inferno in Imo and mentioning the names of Uzodinma's perceived political foes as their sponsors. But, we the One Nigeria Group, are keenly following the events as they unfold, and we will reveal all the dramatis personae in the fullness of time.

On the authority of our intelligence, from the violent confrontations in Orlu to the attacks on the Police Headquarters and Correctional Center in Owerri; from the arson in Uzodinma's own country home to the attacks on law enforcement agents across the State, Uzodinma has serious questions to answer.

First, how was it possible for the Police Headquarters in Owerri and the Correctional Center to be attacked for several hours, nearly two thousand inmates freed, vehicles set ablaze and properties vandalized, yet there were no casualties, no attempt by the security operatives to repel the attackers, no efforts to secure the security soul of the State? More perplexing is the fact that Uzodinma got intelligence report on the impending attacks three days before they were carried out, and he chose to do nothing about it. His acquiesce, even collaboration, with the whole process should be the point of departure if the actual drivers of insecurity in Imo State must to unravelled.

Second, how did it happen that the attackers invaded his country home in Omuma, killed his security guards, chose to burn just his cars and voluntarily left the scene without any attempt to set his house ablaze even when they reportedly came with a truckload of tyres and barrels of fuel? Who guided the operations of the attackers, and what informed their decision to spare the buildings?

Third, on which investigation did Uzodinma premise his hasty pronouncement that his political opponents were behind the attacks on the Police Headquarters barely a few hours after the attacks, even when the law enforcement and intelligence agencies had yet to throw in their reports?

It is really pathetic to see a Governor who would choose to burn down his State in order to frame up, lock up and possibly decimate his perceived political rivals. This gambit of his has been uncovered, and just like the earlier ones, it has hit the brick wall. We therefore urge the law enforcement agencies to urgently act on these findings and beam their searchlight on Uzodinma so as to save Imo State from being burnt down completely. We will not reveal all our findings through the media. We shall escalate our findings to every necessary quarters, both nationally and internationally for a more surgical reaction.

Singed:

Dr. Stephen C. Henshaw,
Secretary-General,
One Nigeria Group (ONG).

Sponsoring insecurity to remain in power? How these people dey reason sef?