Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, on Thursday, said he does not operate the contentious ‘Security Vote’.
Rather, he said he has made a case for state governors to be given more freedom to tackle security challenges at sub-national levels, collaborating with the nation’s federal structure.
The governor bared his mind, shortly after he met behind closed doors with President Bola Tinubu, at the Presidential Villa Abuja to seek an appointment for southeast leaders and Ohaneze Ndigbo to meet the president over unrelenting insecurity in the region.
Recall that while the federal government continues to detain the proscribed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu the South East has witnessed unrest owing to the sit-at-home directive still being enforced.
Uzodimma stressed that while he has no security vote to draw from even as the ‘Chief Security Officer’ of Imo State, he manages to adopt both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to deal with security challenges as much as he is able to within the law.
Moreover, Uzodimma pointed out that the people of southeast believe in the unity of Nigeria and like other regions, deserve the federal government’s support to enable them live their daily lives and go about their businesses.
He declined to give details of what the southeast leaders would be demanding from Tinubu when the meeting holds, but lamented that non-state actors have utilised fear and indiscriminate killings and brigandage to enforce an illegal sit-at-home on some days in the region.
According to him, the problem had also become an issue of “perception management”, even as he pointed out that international diplomacy, which is also part of the solution, is beyond the purview of State Governors.
Asked about the claim by former Nigeria Delta militant, Asari Dokubo, that his men were helping the federal government tackle insecurity in the southeast, Uzodimma replied that he was not aware of such, and can’t identify who are ‘Dokubo’s men’.
He also noted that because of the federal structure of the country, state governors are not at liberty to choose or reject security measures decided by the Federal Government.
The governor further highlighted the flooding ravaging the Southeast, declaring that a recent hydrographic survey shows that the huge cost of remedying the situation may be beyond the capabilities of state governments.