The Imo State Government, yesterday, affirmed that it deliberately abandoned the mountain of smelly refuse along the ever busy Douglas Road, Owerri, to get back at the indigenes who have been fighting the administration.

Governor Rochas Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary, CPS, Mr. Samuel Onwuemeodo, made the disclosure during an early morning public accountability phone-in programme anchored by Hot 99.5 FM, Owerri.

“Government deliberately abandoned the refuse along Douglas Road, Owerri, to get back at Owerri people who have been battling the state government, over the relocation of the market,” Onwuemeodo said.

The Governor’s CPS, who poured invectives on the leadership and indigenes of Owerri municipality, also fumed that “Owerri people must be made to understand that they cannot eat their cake and have it.”

He further explained that “there is a court order restraining government from tampering with the market and this also explains why we left the refuse.” Most of the citizens who called into the programme, described the abandonment of the huge refuse as “a damnable plot to inflict hardship and disease on the people and not to respect a court order.”

A caller, who simply identified himself as Amanze, wondered why and how a government should deliberately hoist pain and disease on its people, in a democracy. “From what the Governor’s Press Secretary has said, it is now very clear that the palpable hatred which Owerri people have been complaining about is real,” Amanze said.

While recalling that Owerri used to be the cleanest city in Nigeria, Amanze, however, said that “the Governor must hate Owerri so much to allow this level of devastation and dirt in the city.”

•Excerpted from a Vanguard report. Photo shows Governor Okorocha.

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