GOVERNMENT OF IMO STATE
PRESS RELEASE
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT PETITIONS THE PRESIDENCY, ARMY HEADQUARTERS, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER & HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS OVER INVASION OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
Following an incident that took place on Tuesday, February 10, 2015 in which case, armed soldiers invaded the Government House and barricaded its main entrance with armoured vehicles, for the whole day on the alleged order of the Junior Minister for Education, Prof. Viola Onwuliri who was also said to have informed her audience that she acted on the import of the order from the presidency, the State Government as a law abiding institution, has petitioned to the presidency, the Army Headquarters, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and some notable Human Rights Groups both within and outside Nigeria to investigate the reasons and circumstances warranting the invasion of the Government House by soldiers and barricading of its main entrance with armoured vehicles.
The Government decided to petition to these quarters knowing full well that the soldiers would not have left the barracks with armoured vehicles to the Government House Owerri, without somebody ordering them to do so and without the person having her or his reason for doing so.
The Government’s worry becomes more pronounced when it is recalled that there was no problem of any kind in any part of the State on that day or even before that day. There was no riot. There was no crisis. There was no clash. Then why did the army come? These are questions we would like the authorities we have petitioned to, to unveil.
The army of every nation is a sacred institution and that could only be called out when a prevailing situation in a given place has overwhelmed other security agencies like the police, the SSS, the Civil Defence and so on. And there was no ugly situation in any part of the state that Tuesday, and not to talk about any situation the police, SSS, etal, could not handle.
We are calling for investigation because the Government had been told that some people from a neighbouring state were hired by the Junior Minister to come and set the Government House ablaze and the soldiers were brought to give protection to the hired elements; and to say the least, with the soldiers being ignorant of what they were told to come and do.
To be fair to the soldiers who came, they were not properly briefed on their mission to the Government House. They were simply asked to move. And that is where we are worried about the claim by the Minister that she acted in collaboration with the presidency. Nigerians would want to know the reason behind the military action at the Government House, Owerri.
In the course of the confusion caused by the action of the soldiers, some workers in the Government House got seriously wounded while running for safety, while the soldiers beat two youngmen they met at the gate to coma, and the reason for all these, we are demanding to know.
These petitions have become necessary because, if the thousands of youths and women who had come out that day to confront the soldiers were allowed to do that, the story would have been different today. As God would have it, the Governor came in that afternoon from Abuja and appealed to the surging and angry crowd to relax and allow the sleeping dog lie.
It is the wish of the State Government that the referenced authorities would do the people of the State favour by investigating the action of the soldiers at the Government House Owerri to prevent a repeat of that incident in future and bring whoever was responsible for that unfortunate action to book.
The petition was authored by the office of the Attorney General of the State and Commissioner for Justice.
Sam Onwuemeodo
Senior Special Assistant
To the Governor On Media
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