Members of Imo Progressive Lawyers Association, IPLA, have expressed worry that “reports from across the state show that the people are traumatized and brutalized, and their mandate grossly abused, as a result of poor governance”.
The IPLA National President, Mr. Chukwuma Ezeala, who made the lamentation yesterday, at a press conference in Owerri, equally fumed that governance in recent times, has not shown respect for the mandate freely given to them, by the good people of Imo State.
“The colossal decay in the education and health sectors in the state, are unimaginable. The tertiary institutions are in a sorry state. The primary and secondary schools are at its lowest ebb. How do you explain the fact that some of our flagship secondary schools do not have classrooms and teaching staff?”, the lawyers fumed.
They were equally irked that Imo State University has not only lost many of its accreditation, but is no longer a place to reckon with, even as they also grieved that manufacturing and agriculture have finally taken a flight.
“It should be admitted that we can no longer persist in the deceit of styling our state a democracy, whereas only a handful of the political elite decide the outcome of electoral processes”, the lawyers said.
On the way forward, the group appealed to Imolites to come together, in a constitutional and dignified manner, to resist any form of dictatorship, domination and subversion of their rights.