The 63rd birthday celebration of the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma held at Government House Owerri on Sunday has provoked a furious reaction from the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state.
The PDP in a statement signed by Mazi Emenike Nmeregini, Acting State Publicity Secretary, Imo PDP made available to DAILY POST in Owerri, said the lavishly obscene birthday party where hundreds of millions of naira were spent on very expensive wines, champagnes and young girls imported from foreign countries, while workers and pensioners are owed in arrears, roads in the state are in collapsed state, is a mockery of the victims of the ongoing killings in Imo and a naked dance on the graves of the dead.
The party described the event as the height of provocation, saying few days ago, the traditional ruler of Atta Kingdom in Njaba was abducted, killed and his corpse dropped at the village square.
According to the opposition party, In the same vein, no fewer than four indigenes of the same Atta community, were murdered on that day. At the dawn of yesterday, the traditional rulers of Amagu Ihube and Ihitte Ihube, both in Okigwe LGA, were kidnapped and their palaces set ablaze. Throughout Imo state, it has been a tale of tears, a season of blood and a festival of fire.
“In all these sacrilegious attacks, Senator Hope Uzodinma has neither addressed the state nor condemned same. His silence, therefore suggests complicity and collaboration or that he has lost total control of the state.”
PDP further said: “What is shocking and provocative too, is that Senator Hope Uzodinma, who has been in Abuja for almost a month could visit Imo, only to mobilize his few cheerleaders to a loud, lavish and flamboyant birthday party to massage his ego, even as the corpses of our fellow citizens are still dripping with the blood. This indeed is the height of insensitivity.
“The primary purpose of government, according to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is for the security and welfare of the people. This is not the case in Imo. We are constrained to hold very strongly that the unending insecurity in the state, which has taken a more dangerous dimension, is a direct consequence of the failure of governance under Senator Uzodinma and his cohorts.
“We had expected Senator Uzodinma, on his recent visit to Imo State to convene an emergency Imo State Security Council meeting to appraise the security situation in the state before any other business. Recall that he jetted out of the State same day, Awo-Omamma carnage occurred.”
PDP said, “Our party and Imolites feel pained that Imo State is now under an ungodly regime where abductions, arson and killings of near-genocidal proportion have become daily realities.
“No leader who has fear of God would jubilate over the ill-fate of our fellow citizens brutally massacred in Imo in the manner Uzodinma has done. It has become clear that Uzodinma lacks milk of humanity, and the spirit of God is far from him.
“Our party profusely condemns these senseless, callous and provocative actions of Senator Uzodinma and urge him to retrace his steps and seek restitution.
Uzodinma has overstretched the patience and perseverance of the people and if nothing is done quickly to address these and other issues bedeveling the State, we are afraid that the people might decide to probe further the actual intention of this regime. “
