Owerri Market Demolition: Its total invasion –Ihedioha

Former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, said he received with rude shock, sadness and profound regret, the invasion of the Eke-Ukwu Owerre market by heavily armed security agencies and the Imo state government armed militia leading to the unfortunate loss of lives.

Chief Ihedioha expressed regret that the state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, took the action in spite of a subsisting court order restraining the state government from taken any action on the market saying that the action was not only provocative but orchestrated maliciously to cow, intimidate and forcefully take over Ekeukwu market for obviously selfish objectives.

The former lawmaker who expressed his views in a statement at the weekend said that the claim by Gov. Okorocha that his action was motivated by the need to flush out kidnappers and drug dealers is not only hollow but a shameless display of his usual white lies.

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Ihedioha said “His (the governor) penchant for primitive acquisition of property is well known and clearly at the core of his motive for this act of cowardice. No doubt, thousands of Imo citizens have been thrown out of job, a number of whom may become security risks. The blood of innocent victims of that Black Saturday and the latent consequences of this action will surely hang on his head.”

“Most unfortunate and regrettable is the fact that Governor Okorocha has once again usurped and appropriated unto himself the powers and authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to order the deployment of men of the armed forces in matters relating to the internal security of the state. Owerri and indeed Imo state is not and was not in a state of war at the time of this action. ”

He therefore called on the security high command to take appropriate actions to stem the tide of anomy and bring all culprits to book no matter how highly placed.

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According to him the incident may necessitate drawing the attention of the Nation’s Security Agencies of the determination of Okorocha to flagrantly abuse official privileges in festering his distasteful governance of lawlessness and serial abuse of the well cherished rule of law.

He reminded the Nigerian Police of its responsibility to the citizenry particularly in a civil democracy, saying that the police cannot continue to be a repressive tool in the hands of Okorocha and his cohorts.
“This reign of terror must not be allowed to take roots in our state because ours is a civilized society. ”

“My heart bleeds for the family of the innocent deceased particularly Mr. Mbanusi, who lost his 10 year old only son (Somtochukwu), in that wicked incident and equally for those who lost their means of livelihood in this period of hardship. In spite of the provocations, I must urge all of us to maintain the peace and be law abiding. ”

Val Okara