The Imo State Government has urged the people of the state to ignore the sit-at-home order issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and planned to hold on 29th, 30th and 31st of May, 2021 in the five states in the South-East.

Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Imo State, Declan Mbadiwe Emelumba, gave the advice at a press conference in Owerri on Thursday in his office.

Emelumba advised the people to go about their normal businesses on the mentioned dates, assuring that the government had put security measures in place to protect lives from any form of harassments and molestation.

He disclosed that already security personnel in the state had been detailed to take full steps to provide adequate protection for the people to ensure peace.

The commissioner reviewed the government’s strategy aimed at tackling insecurity in the state in line with the Federal Government plans.

He regretted what he described as a plot by people who never meant well for the state to make the state ungovernable.

The commissioner said even when the government had returned to normalcy in the state, some people had gone to bring back the hoodlums to kill people and frustrate the efforts of the government.

Emelumba wondered why hoodlums would go to the police station that was already burnt to frustrate the project going on only to disappear when they heard that security personnel were coming.

On the recent Orji shooting of Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State, Emelumba denied an online media report that seven youths were clamped in the prison.

According to him, there was no truth in the information being speculated, adding that the Police had equally denied the information.

He asserted the government’s determination to tackle all manner of insecurity in the state while warning that henceforth anybody caught in that kind of activities would pay dearly for his actions.

The Commissioner warned against any form of protest or demonstration by any group of people in the state, appealing to parents in the state not to allow their children to be used by the faceless people.

Answering questions on the arrest and release of innocent youths during the last Orji shooting, the commissioner for Information said those arrested remained suspects until proven otherwise.

He said that what the police did was a normal thing, assuring that once the youths were proven innocent after investigation, they would be released.

(Nigerian Tribune)

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