Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma was wrong on the deployment of soldiers and his reasons for their invitation to Orlu Zone in the state.
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) said on Wednesday in Abuja that it was unacceptable for Governor Uzodinma to claimed that the Army was invited to forestall anarchy similar to the #ENDSARS’ protests hijack by hoodlums and the attendant violence.
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The HURIWA National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said that the governor’s action and his responses afterwards were illogical especially that the situation in Orlu, was a strictly internal security governance matter that does not require such military intervention.
According to him, the rationale for the deployment of the military in Orlu on the invitation of Governor Uzodinma is wrong as this is straining the relationship between civilians and the military at a time that the support of the citizens are needed.
“Unless the governor’s mandate is questionable, it was wrong to have rushed to Abuja to ask Mr. President to deploy armed soldiers and Air force to stage military actions in Orlu Senatorial Zone over the presence of some of your constituents who set up a platform to protect their lives and properties from attacks by marauding armed herdsmen.
“What you ought to have done if truly your mandate is from Imo voters is to look towards the Imo state House of Assembly to make relevant laws bringing into being, a standardized armed vigilante to work in partnership with relevant security institutions like the Army, the Police and the DSS.
“Mr. Governor, you need not seek for external intervention to crush the Eastern Security Network (ESN) when it is not a force seeking to overrun any territorial area in Nigeria but rather it is a creation of necessity to fill the void of security governance in Imo state. You need to begin to govern the state and Imo people like a governor with the mandate and not a man heading an occupying force,” Onwubiko said.
