President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the deployment of more security personnel, arms and ammunition to address the security situation in Imo State, Daily Trust reports.
Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State announced this while fielding questions from State House reporters after a meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
President Buhari had summoned the governor over recent security developments in his state.
He had expressed concerns over the security situation in the Southeast region of the country and condemned the attack on the country home of Professor George Obiozor, the President-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
Governor Uzodinma, while speaking on some details of the meeting with the President, said all his requests with regards to solving the security crises were granted.
“You must have heard that the President sent for me and I have gone to see him and based on issues, which we have adequately addressed, particularly the resurgence of insecurity in the Southeast and what is required to ensure that it’s properly controlled.
“We discussed all that and he took seriously my recommendations and indeed I can tell you he immediately gave approval to all that, which includes increase in manpower to security agencies and then other logistics supports, ranging from additional arms and ammunition.
“Also, we are making use of our local vigilante and the involvement of community leaders to ensure that through community arrangement, additional security is provided to the people.
“You will recall that a few days ago, the home of the President-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo was attacked by bandits and the same night, a police station in Umuguma, Owerri West, was also attacked.
“For a very long time, if you’ll remember, we’ve never had such a situation and this happened at a time that our people are already relaxed and thought that insecurity has become a thing of the past.
“But to the glory of God, security agencies rose to it, the second day they were probably repelled by security agencies, particularly men of the Directorate of State Service. They’ve been very useful, working with other security agencies.
“We didn’t also wait, we initiated a community-oriented program where the vigilante approach has been re-enacted and the community leaders have shown sufficient interest. We’ll get there”, the governor said.
The governor also denied allegations of the culpability of his administration in the reign of terror that had pervaded the state, describing such allegations as illogical.
Governor Uzodinma said stakeholders’ meetings had been held to assuage the feelings harboured by aggrieved persons towards him or the state and expressed willingness to further pursue more peaceful missions.
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