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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Imo Government has debunk an allegation of a shoot-on-sight order on residents and indiscriminate arrest on its youths in the state as being peddled in the social media.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, at a press conference, yesterday, said the allegation is not only unfounded, but baseless and intended to cause panic among residents in the state.
Emelumba said the operation launched by the police is not intended to hunt innocent citizens, but to arrest those hoodlums propagating crisis in the state.
Speaking on the recent attack at a police station in Orji, the commissioner said necessary machineries have been put in place to avert a future occurrence.
He advised parents to monitor their children to avoid being led to unnecessary protest.
The commissioner urged the residents to ignore the sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) slated May 31 while the candle light procession, it noted, comes up earlier on May 30.
Regardless, IPOB, in a statement, yesterday, by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, reiterated the order, insisting that all shops, markets, business premisses and schools should remain close.
“Every person in Biafra land is, therefore, advised to observe the sit-at-home order on May 31. That day is a sacred day in Biafra land in honour of the over five million Biafrans massacred during the civil war.
“Anyone violating this sit-at-home order should blame oneself for whatever fate that befalls one as penalty for stubbornness,” Powerful said.
Meanwhile, Imo International Conference Centre built by the former governor Rochas Okorocha administration has collapsed following a heavy rainfall on Tuesday night.
The conference centre is located along the popular Assumpta/Bank Road in the capital metropolis built in 2014 at the estimated cost of over N2 billion.
The centre had played host to numerous high profile events, including the national conference of the Nigeria Bar Association, Chief of Army conference and All Progressives Congress Governors’s Forum.
The short-lived administration of former governor Emeka Ihedioha never made use of the facility because of the structural defects and same for the incumbent Governor Hope Uzodimma who preferred the Ahiajoku Centre.
