Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has accused Governor Hope Uzodimma of setting up a killer squad known as Hopism Strike Force (HSF).

He also alleged that the strike force is behind the mayhems in the state. The governor has denied the allegations.

Addressing reporters at his residence in Owerri, Okorocha said the strike force comprises the military, police, DSS and Ebubeagu.

He challenged Uzodimma to name sponsors of insecurity in the state.

“If the governor knows he has no such force in the state, let him tell the world who killed Gukak.

“It is not about me or Uche Nwosu; it is about the image of our state. I want to repeat this Sheba, Uzodimma’s CSO, has been in detention for the past 4 days. He is among the striking force of Uzodimma, I still ask Uzodimma, who killed Gulak? Who killed traditional rulers? Who killed about 140 bodies of Imolites found in the mortuary? Hope Uzodimma has a striking force called ‘Hope striking force’ they should ask them what they are doing with this killer squad.”

He argued that unless the mystery of “Hopeism strike force and Ebubeagu” is unravelled, members of the public would continue to grope in the dark in search of the sponsors and agents of banditry in the state.

The former governor lamented the lives and properties lost in the state, including the killing of some traditional rulers and over 104 others since the inception of the Uzodimma-led administration. “This never happened for the 8 years that I ruled this state,” he said.

He added that while everybody was waiting patiently to hear the governor mention those behind banditry, kidnapping, killing and all forms of mayhem in the state, he avoided it.

Okorocha boasted that he has no skeleton in the cupboard, adding that the increasing rate of killings and recent ‘kidnap’ of his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, in a church spoke volumes of a clueless and insensitive government to the people.

”My legacies are all over the place and would ever remain indelible and cannot be erased because they are very clear,” he said.

He urged the President, the Inspector General of Police and other security chiefs in the country to intervene in the ugly drama taking place in Imo.

The former governor dismissed insinuations in some quarters of his plan to dump the All Progressives Congress (APC) and queried: “How can I build a house, furnish it and abandon it for a tenant? I was one of those who formed the APC and Governor Hope Uzodimma only came in through the window so I cannot leave the party for him.”

Uzodimma described Okorocha’s action as paranoid.

“If he is not paranoid, why panic, what has he to hide? If Okorocha knows that the governor has a killer squad known as Hopism Strike Force, why wait until now that public searchlight is on you and son-in-law to start exposing the killer squad?” Uzodimma, who spoke through his Commissioner for Information and Strategy Declan Emelumba, said: “If you say that the governor has a killer squad, the best place to report is the police, not the press. I believe the Okorocha has something he is hiding and sooner than later, it will be exposed.” (Adopted from The Nation)

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