Extra judicial killings: PDP drags IMSG to International Criminal Court

Photo: Mr. Collins Opuruozor, the Imo State Publicity Secretary of PDP, in the middle flanked on the Left by, Pharm. Carnice Nwosu the Director General of Imo PDP Supports & Volunteers Group, while on the right is Mr. Greg Nwadike, the PDP State Youth Leader.

From Everest Ezihe, Owerri

Worried by persistent insecurities and extra judicial killings happening in Imo State for the past two years, the Eastern Heartland, People’s Democratic Party has advanced plans to drag Imo State Government, IMSG under the leadership of Governor Hope Uzodimma of All Progressive Congress, APC to International Criminal Court, ICC in Hague capital of Netherlands.

Mr. Collins Opurozor, Imo State Publicity Secretary of PDP, disclosed this on Sunday at the Conference Hall of the Okigwe Road state party Secretariat, Owerri during a well attended world press conference christened by the political party as “on the Endless Abductions, Mass Killings and Arson in Imo State” also quoting William Yeat, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”.

According to Opurozor who attended the press conference with 3 other principal officers of the political party namely Hon. Greg Nwadike and Pharm. Canice Nwosu, the Party’s Youth leader and Director General Support and Volunteer Groups respectively,”we have invited you here to address an issue which constitutes an existential threat to everyone living Imo State. That is the festering insecurity in the State.

“As a political party, we are dismayed by the alarming incompetence, lack of focus and total failure of the government of Senator Hope Uzodinma to tame this rampaging monster of insecurity for more than two years now. The truth is not so much that the security strategies of this government have failed, than that the government has no strategies to tackle the security challenges.

“Thus, the APC administration in the State must now give way for a focused, result-oriented, responsible and humane government of PDP to step in and begin the process of genuine healing in the State.

He pointed out that it’s troubling to note that the size of Imo territory that has now been allegedly overrun and occupied by killers, arsonists, kidnappers and bandits is larger than the territories of Malta and Vatican City put together.

Informing that, the largest senatorial district in the State, which is Orlu, has been abandoned, economic activities crippled and over a million residents displaced stressing that Okigwe Zone has also become a warfront just as he observed that parts of Owerri Zone are fast becoming engulfed in this fire of insecurity.

The Spokesperson noted that If nothing urgent is not done now, that it’s certain that very soon every Imo person may become a refugee in other parts of the country.

According to him, “traditional rulers are now brutally murdered. In some instances, they are beheaded and their bodies dumped in the streets. Judges are dragged out from their courtrooms and slaughtered like rams. In the last seven days, two Catholic priests have been abducted and their whereabouts still unknown. Things have fallen apart, and Imo has become a wasteland!

“To be clear, government exists for the sake of life, and continues to exist for the sake of the best life. The 1999 Constitution of our Federal Republic further codifies this philosophy by stating in unequivocal terms that the security of lives and property shall be the primary purpose of government. Therefore, any government that sits and watches while citizens are abducted and brutally murdered, and houses burnt to ashes, has no reason to continue to exist.

“Also, a government that has been fingered in the extrajudicial killing of its own citizens has lost the moral authority to continue to run the affairs of the state” he insisted.

Opurozor opined that recent report by an international human rights watchdog called Intersociety has aligned with his political party’s long-held position, that the government in Imo State has questions to answer over the killings in the State.

“We have it in Intersociety’s authority that, over nine hundred innocent Imo residents have been murdered in extrajudicial manners in the last twenty-nine months. This means that at least one innocent person is killed every day in the State by those who are supposed to protect them. Nothing is ever done to ensure justice is served. Nothing is ever said by the government. Killing is now a norm. This cannot continue!” he noted.

He further accused Imo State APC government of being instrumental to more than three hundred residents been victims of forced disappearances, while over five hundred thousand young men have fled the State for fear of being profiled and killed.

Political opponents they alleged have been targeted for elimination, citing the recent past brutal attacks on Hon. Uju Kingsley Chima and Barr. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, in which family members and political supporters were gruesomely murdered using that as a pointer to the pitiable situation in the State.

The Publicity Secretary further alleges that, “during the last elections 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 the desperation to capture power. This is everything governance should not be. These atrocities must never go unpunished ” they advised.

Opurozor further allegedly recalled, with deep agony how a female undergraduate of Imo State University was murdered just in front of the Government House in Owerri by those suspected to be security agents and accused the state government of keeping mute just as he recalled how allegedly a young businessman was gunned down by suspected security operatives at Amakohia in Owerri on his way back to home.

“A young lawyer was trailed and shot dead. Another young man who had 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-Omamma on their way to the traditional marriage ceremony of their friend. Eyewitnesses, including the groom, said the killers were members of the Ebubeagu security outfit established and run by the government of Senator Uzodimma. Horrifying genocide is going on in Imo State!” he lamented.

“Gentlemen of the Press, our Party has documented all these cases of extrajudicial 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 with the Embassies and High Commissions of all the American and European countries to ensure that a total and immediate visa ban is enforced on Senator Hope Uzodimma and officials of his regime”.

Imo PDP passionately urge the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to quickly intervene, upon assumption of office so as to discontinue the alleged silence of the Federal Government over Senator Uzodinma’s alleged use of state apparatus to oppress Imo people, gag the press and crush political dissent.

Insisting that, “It is now clear that Senator Uzodinma has lost Imo State. His purchase of a few endorsements has not helped his wobbling regime. He is now desperate, running to his fellow governor for award and validation. But no matter how hard he tries, his removal from power is a decided issue. Nothing can change this” he boasted.

He reassure Imo people that PDP is determined to take back the State and return it to the path of peace and progress while passionately appealing to all Imolites to join hands with his political party and participate fully in their resolved of making the State Safe again.