Imo State Government has blamed the mayhem experienced in Orlu last week, on the falsehood allegedly peddled by the opposition in the state.
The Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Chief Mbadiwe Emelumba, stated this Wednesday, while answering questions during a live news interactive phone-in programme on Darling FM, Owerri.
His words: “The opposition has been peddling this falsehood that government reserved acres of land for herdsmen in Imo State. They kept peddling that lie repeatedly until, maybe IPOB believed it and started going about, looking for where a non-existent land was. That was part of the genesis of the crisis.
“The government holds the opposition squarely responsible for this, because they knew that what they were saying was not true and they kept sending that message across. It was just like when they said that government wanted to rename Imo State University to Abba Kyari University. There was also a time they said that the Governor was establishing Almajili school.
“These are lies and we know they are lies, but they keep peddling them. They use it to incite insurrection. We know those who are responsible for this and they will definitely account for their action because you can’t cause this level of carnage on a people, based on fabrication of lies and hope to get away with it.”
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Continuing, Emelumba said that whether it was the Eastern Security Network, ESN, or whatever, there was an incitement or a combination of militant group and others acting on the background, stresding that “those who are behind it know themselves”.
Answering a question on road construction in the state, the Commissioner said: “The Naze-Nekede-Ihiagwa-Obinze road is a very classical case of what this government has been doing, in terms of going to the neglected areas by previous administrations. A reasonable length of this road will be commissioned as part of our one year in office. If you go there now, you won’t believe what you will see because it is being asphalted as we speak.
“The Relief Market Road was also neglected for many years. Governments were here but they neglected the road. It was taken over by flood and some residents had to pack away from there but today, the narrative has changed. If you to Chukwuma Nwaoha, Douglas Road, Dick Tiger and a couple of other roads, you will be asking yourself if this truly Owerri.”
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On the underground tunnel from the Dick Tiger axis and crossing the ever busy Owerri-Umuahia federal highway, Emelumba said: “It is a big, balloon-driven tunnel that will take all the flood in Owerri, to Otamiri River. There is also going to be a water treatment plant at the end, so that the water going into the River won’t pollute the river, because that is where the Otamiri Water Works is.”
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