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The PDP Publicity Secretary in the state, Collins Opurozor, who made this known in a chat with journalists in Owerri, expressed the fear that the security outfit would manipulate the 2023 elections in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
Opurozor, therefore, called for the immediate disbandment of Ebubeagu and berated the state Governor, Hope Uzodinma, for failing to protect lives and properties in the state.
He also charged the people of the state to vote out the APC in the forthcoming elections.
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Opurozor said: ‘Now something very important must be mentioned. From the beginning of human society, the essence of political governance has been the security of lives and property.
‘Government exists for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of the best life. That is how philosophers put it. But today in Imo State, the regime of Senator Uzodinma has completely resigned from its responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the Imo people.
‘Agents and militiamen of the government have been accused of masterminding some of the killings in the state. The gruesome massacre of 14 Otulu youths at Awo-Omamma by Uzodinma-backed Ebubeagu militia remains a case in point.
‘More than half of Imo territory is presently under the occupation of bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, and other non-state actors who levy death upon Imo people and make life a misery. Farmers have abandoned their farmlands and the logical outcome has been an unprecedented rise in poverty and starvation, including crime. Three years ago, Imo was the most peaceful state in Nigeria. Our state is now a killing field!
‘As the 2023 elections draw closer, the failed regime of Senator Uzodinma is already perfecting a wicked plot to deploy violence to manipulate electoral outcomes and extend its illegitimate hold onto power. Our party has intercepted credible intelligence about the planned role which the Uzodinma-backed Ebubeagu militia would play in this process of derailing democracy in the state.
‘On Election Day, what may be witnessed is a scenario where accreditations would be allowed to take place with BVAS, and from that point, Ebubeagu militia would take over the process to complete the actual voting and transmission. The massively-rigged February 2022 State Constituency By-election in Ngor Okpala provided the ground for the APC regime in Imo to test this crime against democracy.
‘Imo PDP, therefore, demands the immediate disbandment of Ebubeagu militia. The Inspector-General of Police must rise to the occasion. Since Ebubeagu began its operations in Imo State, insecurity, killings, abductions, and arson have only risen astronomically. There is no justification for the militia to continue to exist!
‘Imo people should realize that if this bestial regime in the state is allowed to set everywhere on fire and make all the parts of Imo uninhabitable, we all would become refugees in foreign lands.
‘Therefore, everyone in the state must now come out, join hands and participate in the electoral process, with the clear and patriotic objective of permanently sending this unelected regime packing. This is what we owe ourselves for the sake of our collective survival. This is what we owe our generations yet unborn.’
The Eastern Updates
