By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodima on Thursday met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to seek an appointment for South East leaders and Ohaneze Ndigbo to meet the President over unrelenting insecurity in the region.
This is even as he said that he does not operate the contentious ‘Security Vote’, but has made a case for State Governors to be given more latitude and headroom to tackle security challenges at subnational levels, even with the nation’s federal structure.
The Governor who addressed State House Correspondents after the closed doors meeting with Tinubu disclosed that he came to the seat of power to seek an appointment for South East leaders and Ohaneze Ndigbo to meet the President over unrelenting insecurity in the region.
Uzodimma stressed that while he has no security vote to draw from even as the ‘Chief Security Officer’ of Imo State, he manages to adopt both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to deal with security challenges as much as he is able to within the law.
Nonetheless, it is important that Governors elected to manage the affairs of the people should be given more latitude to perform their functions effectively, he explained.
Moreover, Uzodimma pointed out that the people of Southeast believe in unity of Nigeria and like other regions, deserve Federal Government support to enable them live their daily lives and go about their businesses.
He declined to give details of what the Southeast leaders would be demanding from Tinubu when the meeting holds, but lamented that non-state actors have utilised fear and indiscriminate killings and brigandage to enforce an illegal sit-at-home on some days in the region.
According to him, the problem had also become an issue of “perception management”, even as he pointed out that international diplomacy, which is also part of the solution, is beyond the purview of State Governors.
Asked about the claim by former Nigeria Delta militant, Asari Dokubo, that his men are helping the federal government tackle insecurity in the South East , Uzodimma replied that he was not aware of such, and can’t identify who are ‘Dokubo’s men’.
He also noted that because of the federal structure of the country, State Governors are not at liberty to choose or reject security measures decided by the Federal Government.
The Governor further highlighted the flooding ravaging the Southeast, declaring that a recent hydrographic survey shows that the huge cost of remedying the situation may be beyond the capabilities of State Governments.
