This happened as former Governor Ikedi Ohakim warned the state administration to stop playing politics with insecurity.
”We cannot talk again”, said a farmer in Onuimo. “Gunmen drive into our communities at night and shoot anyhow. They attack and burn houses. Our people have abandoned their homes including traditional rulers. They now live in Owerri. Some of the houses now are occupied by strangers. They live there with their guns.
“How can they talk of security while some of the police stations burnt by these gunmen have not been rebuilt? Go around the Ihitte-Uboma, Onuimo, and even some parts of Mbaise areas, you see how those police stations are looking. Also, a trader in Okigwe, who wishes to be called Nne, disclosed that villages in Okigwe are no longer safe. “Come to the villages, we are living in fear”, he told Sunday Vanguard.
Reacting, Imo State Police Command Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Henry Okoye, disclosed that since last Tuesday’s attacks, the command had sent a special tactical team, well equipped, to address the issue of insecurity in the area.