By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Apparently listening to the voices of reason, Imo state governor, Hope Uzodinma, on Tuesday, failed to name the sponsors of attacks in the state contrary to a pledge he made last December.
Uzodinma had on December 19, 2021, promised to release the names of those sponsoring the “unwarranted killings, kidnapping, and all forms of insecurity in Imo State” on January 3 but later moved the date and venue to January 4, 2022 and now at Government House.
According to him: “All the people that were hired to kill our people, we have started picking all of them. As of now, we’ve picked 18 suspects. Some of them have confessed those who are paying them.
“We have gotten the bank account from where they have been transferring money to them and we have the evidence. When I will address Imo stakeholders on January 3, I will call their names one by one,” he had said.
But two weeks after keeping Imolites and Nigerians waiting to hear from him the names of alleged sponsors of insecurity in Imo state, Uzodinma on Tuesday held the “2022 Imo Stakeholders Meeting/Luncheon (not South East again).
At the event which attracted many people Uzodinma acknowledged that he promised a fortnight ago to name the sponsors of attacks in Imo.
He, however, said he would no longer release names but would leave security agencies ‘‘to do their work and prosecute those found culpable”, adding that “many of the persons carrying out attacks in the state had been arrested”.
Meanwhile, the camp of immediate past Governor of Imo state, Rochas Anayo Okorocha has criticised Governor Uzodinma’s Chief Press Secretary, Oguwuike Nwachukwu who was accused of pre-emptying his Principal by going ahead to release a press statement a day earlier mentioning the names of ex-Governor Okorocha and his son-in-law Chief Uche Nwosu among those sponsoring insecurity in Imo state.
But in a press statement obtained by Prompt News on Tuesday, Sam Onwuemeodo, Special Adviser (Media) to the former Imo State Governor and Senator Representing Imo West Senatorial District, picked holes in the press release issued by Uzodinma’s media aide.
Titled: “Whose Account or Report Do We Believe”, Okorocha’s media aide said both Uzodinma and his media aide have made Imo state a laughing stock in the eyes of the world by speaking in different tunes.
