Imo PDP may drag Imo state Govt to International Criminal Court over alleged heightened insecurity in state 

VICTOR DURUMAKU, Owerri 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Imo state, has reacted over what it described as, “increasing incidences of kidnapping, killings, arson and wanton destruction of property in the state by unknown Gunmen.“ 

Addressing a press conference, Sunday, in Owerri the state capital, the party held that, ” Imo state has reached the height of insecurity as of now.“ 

According to the party, “it has reached a point where young men, women, traditional rulers, Rev. Fathers, policemen etc are shot, kidnapped, slaughtered and/or kept in perpetual fear.“

The state publicity secretary, of the party, Chief Collins Opuruzor, who addressed newsmen said that the party has perfected plans and put every document in place to commence the process of presenting them before the Criminal Court.

According to him, ” the state has recorded more than three hundred residents as victims of forced disappearance while over five hundred young men have fled the state for fear of being profiled and killed.” 

He further “It is troubling to note that the size of Imo  state that has now been overrun and occupied by unknown Gunmen   and  other bandits is larger than Malta and Vatican City put together.” 

The party official said that the largest senatorial district in the state, which is the Orlu zone, has been abandoned due to insecurity and the collapse of economic activities. 

He pointed out that over a million residents are displaced while the Okigwe zone of the state has also become a war front as  Parts of the Owerri zone are fast becoming engulfed. 

The party  Chieftain  said, ” If we do not act now, every Imo citizen may soon become a refugee in other parts of the country.” 

“Traditional Rulers are now brutally murdered.“

“In some instances, they are beheaded and their bodies dumped in the streets,“ while “Judges are dragged out of the courtroom and slaughtered like rams,“ the party explained. 

It further recalled, “In the last seven days, two Catholic Priests have been abducted and their whereabouts still unknown” saying, “Things have fallen apart and Imo has become a wasteland.“

“Any government that has been fingered in the extra-judicial killings of its citizens has lost the moral authority to continue to run the affairs of the state,“ the party maintained. 

The party recalled the report of the international human rights report which according to the party alleged that ” Imo state government has questions to answer.“ 

“We have it in intersociety authority, that over nine hundred innocent Imo citizens have been murdered in extra-judicial manners in the last twenty-nine months. 

“Similarly, more than three hundred Imo residents have been victims of forced disappearance, while over five hundred young men in the state have fled the state for fear of being profiled and killed.

“Political opponents have been targeted for elimination. This is horrible.

“During the last election in February and March, Imo people witnessed another dimension to state-sanctioned violence.

“Government appointees and APC party officials led armed thugs and rogue security agents to unleash mayhem on innocent citizens in desperation to capture power.

“This is everything governance should not be. These atrocities must never go unpunished.

“Imo PDP recalls with deep agony how a female undergraduate of Imo State University was murdered just in front of the Government House, Owerri by those suspected to be security agents. 

“Yet the government kept mute. A young businessman was gunned down by suspected security operatives at Amakohia Owerri on his way back home. 

“A young lawyer was trailed and shot dead at his office. Another young man who returned from Germany was murdered at a security checkpoint on his way to the airport. 

“Fourteen unarmed young men were rounded up and massacred in Awo-Amama on their way to the traditional marriage ceremony of their friend. 

“Eyewitnesses, including the groom, said that the killers were members of the Ebubeagu security outfit established and run by the government of Senator Hope Uzodinma. 

“Horrifying genocide is going on in Imo state.

“Meanwhile, our party has documented all these cases of extra-judicial killings and human rights abuses in the state.

“And has now commenced the process of presenting them before the International Criminal Court, so that principal officials of this anti-people government can answer to their heinous crimes against humanity.

“We have also pursued this matter to embassies and high commissions of all the American and European countries, to ensure a total and immediate visa ban is enforced on Senator Hope Uzodinma and officials of his regime.”

Efforts to reach some of the media handlers of Governor Hope Uzodinma including the state Commissioner for Information, Declan Emelumba and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Communications, Collins Oghalaa, to confirm the allegations proved abortive at the time of filing this report.