The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma’s rejection of the clamour for state police “exposes his sympathy for terrorists and bandits who are killing, kidnapping and ravaging our nation”.
The main opposition party stated this in a Thursday statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan in reaction to an interview Uzodinma granted Channels Television’s “Politics Today” on Wednesday.
PDP also slammed the Imo governor for attempting “to justify President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to wake up to the statutory demand of his office and take expected steps to rescue Nigerians from terrorists and bandits”.
“The party asserts that Governor Uzodimma’s anti-people stance against efforts to establish state policing system also exposes his insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians in the face of manifest failure by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled federal security apparatus to protect the people
“It is however not surprising that Hope Uzodimma, who is in the Imo State government house as a beneficiary of criminal manipulation of our electoral and judicial processes by the APC, cannot but found himself justifying the failures of his benefactors at the expense of the lives of other Nigerians, including the people of Imo state.
“Nigerians are now seeing the faces of the APC leaders who have sympathy for terrorism and should hold such individuals responsible for the activities of such deviants in our country.
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“Governor Uzodimma, as a former legislator, knows that the Second Schedule (Exclusive Legislative List) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) vests the operation of the police, the military and other armed services; the control of arms and ammunitions as well as criminal records among other statutory paraphernalia of national security on the Federal Government and not the states.
“Against this backdrop, any well-meaning leader ought to be lending his or her voice to the call by Nigerians on President Buhari to wake up to his statutory responsibilities as well as initiating the required executive instrument to accelerate legislative actions towards the amendment of relevant sections of the constitution to establish a desirable state police system.
“Furthermore, the PDP cautions Uzodimma against politicizing the current security crisis in Imo state which is occasioned by his mismanagement of the sensibilities of the citizens.
“Governor Uzodimma should end his pursuits of imaginary traducers and blame nobody but himself and his APC for the crisis in Imo state.
“Our party is grief-stricken over the devastation that Governor Uzodimma and the APC have brought to Imo state and urges the people to continue to be peaceful and law-abiding despite the provocations by APC thugs who have been causing mayhem in the state.”