A civil rights advocacy group, Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), says if all the appointees of Governor Hope Uzodimma, including Governor Hope Uzodimma himself, will live and operate from the State then they will collectively understand the urgency of the moment to take steps to end all kinds of extra-judicial killings of Igbo youths by armed security forces and the state owned Ebubeagu security network.

HURIWA also noted that the Imo State administration has failed to amplify the need for the implementation of effective state wide non -kinetic and non-military methodologies towards resolving the longstanding and unresolved cases of extra-legal execution of Igbo youths by the security services maintained and paid with taxpayers funds but controlled by the Centre which has mostly displayed lackadaisical approaches toward finding lasting panacea to the heightened state of insecurity in some parts of the state.

The rights group equally called on Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international coalition of civil rights monitors to take special interest in the silent but noticeable extra-legal killings that had gone on in Imo State and especially around Orlu senatorial zone of the state.

The group therefore asked the Imo State government to pass a law mandating all the appointees of the government of Imo State and their families to reside and operate from within the state.

It also urged the Imo State House of Assembly to pass a law legislating the compulsory residency of all recognised traditional Rulers in the State, adding that it was strange that prominent traditional rulers recognised by law in Imo State currently live mostly and operate from Lagos.

Similarly, HURIWA is asking the Imo State Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs to relocate his family to live within the territory of Imo State so that his ministry may more meaningfully implement measures workable and efficient enough to cut down on cases of criminality and the unreported but significant cases of extrajudicial killings of Imo State youths by the Armed Forces of Nigeria, including the regular and secret Police operating within the state who ought to protect the citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity or religion.

HURIWA condemns the Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante services in Imo State, Mr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji, for glamorising and celebrating the ugly fact that he is the Commissioner for Internal Security in Imo State, yet his immediate family resides in the United States of America.

HURIWA wondered whether the Commissioner whose family is in the USA permanently can take a ride in his car the way he did in the USA down in Imo State and especially from Owerri to Orlu where many innocent citizens have been killed by security forces and the notorious Ebubeagu.

The group said it condemned the Commissioner over his article recently published online titled, “Visiting the US: the case for Imo State and Uzodinma”, “in which he shamelessly disclosed that his immediate family do not live in Imo State but yet he is the cabinet level officer that defines and carry out internal security strategies to protect internal residents of the State”.

In the said article, the Commissioner wrote thus: “After three years of working in Hopeville (Imo State), I got permission to attend a security conference and also see my family in the US. This is the longest I have stayed away from Obama Country since the age of 16 when I went there as a student.

“I will always be grateful to America. She welcomed me in the 1980s. She nurtured me. She educated me. She also reverted the African in me and sharpened my Okoro-ness.

“It was with pleasure that I arrived back in New Jersey on March 21, 2023. After texting Onwa Oyoko that I had landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, I joined my family in a drive to Willingboro.

“Naturally we took the New Jersey Turnpike. I was immediately reawakened, for the first time in three years, to the consciousness that I was a Black man being driven in a car on a highway by my son, who is also Black.

“It was a journey with anxieties and feelings that Owerri had spared me for the past 36 months. Only those who have been part of the African-American experience in the US would understand what I am talking about.

“As Commissioner for Homeland Security in Imo State, Nigeria, I always think security. I have been here for about two weeks now. There have been six mass shootings and mass killings in different states of the US since I arrived.

“Altogether, there have been 132 mass shootings across America in the first three months of 2023, with multiple casualties each time. In many of these insecurity incidents, innocent children were murdered.

“In the city of Chicago alone (state of Illinois), more people have died due to mass shootings (insecurity) in the first three months of this year than died in all of 2022 in Nigeria. Yet one does not see a directive from any quarters to avoid the US for security reasons.

“In Imo State, Governor Hope Uzodimma has prioritized security and safety above all else. The result has been a relatively safe and peaceful state, even in the midst of vigorously contested national and state elections.

“The Easter period has been characterized by the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ across the state, with no significant incident of insecurity.

“As the citizens of Imo State prepare to vote for a governor in November of 2023, the most politically sophisticated and enlightened electorate in Nigeria must choose to stick with a leader with firm and fair hands on the wheels of the ship of state.

“Thanks to the courageous and consequential efforts of Uzodimma, there is nowhere else in the world I feel as dignified and safe as a Black man, as I feel in Imo State.

“When I served as a Board member of the World Igbo Congress in 2007, I advanced the Odoziobodo Principle.

“The principle is this: In the case of elections where an incumbent is seeking reelection, and where there is a term limit, it is in the best interest of the citizenry to reelect the incumbent, provided that the ship of state is not significantly adrift.

“In Imo State, the ship of state under Governor Uzodimma has sailed with excellence and seamlessly for over three years, in many cases, against strong tides and headwinds. The captain has been focused and innovative. No matter what has been thrown at him, he has adapted, improvised and overcome it in superlative fashions.

“I am on my way back to Owerri. I look forward to the swearing-in of President-elect Bola Tinubu. And I look forward to working on the re-election of Governor Hope Uzodimma.”

HURIWA in the statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, asked that all the commissioners relocate their families to Imo State. It also condemned “the frequency with which Governor Hope Uzodimma visits the federal capital territory and is suspected to be ruling Imo State from his home in Maitama Abuja.”

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