Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has offered amnesty to gunmen terrorising residents of the state, with a promise to grant them pardon if they repent and surrender their weapons to traditional rulers.
Uzodinma disclosed this via a video clip he posted on his Twitter handle while meeting with traditional rulers and other community leaders at a palace in Owerri over the weekend.
“I have given an opportunity for bad boys who are repentant and willing to surrender their guns, to go to their traditional rulers, surrender their guns. We will grant them pardon. We will even rehabilitate them and make them earn a living for themselves,” he said.
The governor first made the amnesty offer in June, when he asked gunmen operating in forests within the state to surrender their weapons within ten days and receive unconditional pardon.
He had threatened that the gunmen would face bombardment if they failed to take advantage of the opportunity.
Uzodinma, during the meeting, asked the traditional rulers and community leaders to contribute to restoring security in their communities. The governor assured that he would support them when called upon, stressing that traditional rulers are part of every government.
“I want you to go and restore a sense of security to your communities. Go home. Meet with the town union and youth wings. Plan how to secure your communities,” he told the traditional rulers.
Like other states in Nigeria’s south-east, security has deteriorated in Imo State with frequent attacks by armed persons. The attacks often target security agencies, government officials and facilities and very important personalities.
The Nigerian government has accused the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the region. But the group has repeatedly denied their involvement in the attacks.
Uzodinma criticised the infamous sit-at-home order usually enforced by a faction of the outlawed separatist group across South-east Nigeria.
The governor said the civil order was an indirect way of wiping the entire Igbo race and asked residents of the region not to allow the enforcers of the sit-at-home order to deceive them.
“If there is anyone who is fighting for Ndigbo, you can’t fight for Ndigbo by killing Ndigbo. If you are fighting for Ndigbo, you cannot tell Igbo people not to go to the market. You cannot tell Igbo people not to eat. You cannot tell their children not to go to school. It is an indirect way of wiping a race,” he said.
Although Uzodinma did not mention names, he was referring to Simon Ekpa, a controversial pro-Biafran agitator based in Finland who has continued to declare sit-at-home in the region despite the fact that IPOB already ended the sit at home order.
The Street Journal had earlier reported how Nnamdi Kanu, the detained IPOB leader, through Aloy Ejimakor, his special counsel, ordered Ekpa to stop issuing sit-at-home orders in the region.
Ejimakor, on his verified Twitter handle had posted copies of Kanu’s handwritten letter to Ekpa, whom he also instructed to stop antagonising governors and other political leaders in the region.
But the pro-Biafran agitator described the letter as fake, claiming authorities of the State Security Service wrote it and not the IPOB leader.
He said attributing the letter to Kanu was a joke and an insult, just as he maintained that the civil action would go on until Kanu speaks to him directly in Finland,
Comments