8. Our interactions within and outside the state shows that both groups planning the anti-government and pro-government protests are holding nocturnal meetings with certain youths organizations, especially people believed to be hoodlums and criminals have been contracted and briefed to use the occasion to vandalize shops, supermarkets, markets, etc, and possibly destroy government properties so as to give the impression that the citizenry are not happy with the government. This is moreso when a prominent member of the APC, Hon Uche Onyeagucha, from Owerri Zone, has been quited to have instructed that youths from Owerri Zine should destroy any billboard not belonging to aspirants from Owerri Zone. We gather that the pro-government protesters who are recruiting youths in the oil producing areas of Imo State will unleash the youths to counter the anti-government protesters, and the contracted hoodlums could take advantage of thr situation and perpetrate their crininal acts.
9. In all, we gather that the two protests will only create the picture of an ungovernable Imo State where the citizenry have risen and perhaps taken the laws into their arms. The pro-government protesters understand that the anti-government protest has been politicized ahead of 2019, that is why they feel a duty to protect the image of the government by staging a counter protest to discredit the anti-government protesters.
10. With this in mind one could only imagine what could happen if these vibrant, “angry” and “briefed” and “brainwashed” youths clash. It could ignite crisis.
11. Imo Youths Platform does not believe in violent confrontation with the government, and anybody who is planning to bring the youths of the state to a head-on collision is not being patriotic and does not mean well for the state.
12. On our own, we have considered the huge cost in terms of possible negative outcomes it will have on the state and the country, considering the current security situation all over the country, if the members of Imo Youths Platform mobilize and storm the streets of Owerri and confront these elements who are going to cause our dear state undue pain and chaos. We also understand that the officials of the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Security have been working assiduously for the safety of all in the country, and on several occasions the officials have paid the ultimate price. We do not, therefore, want some hired hoodlums or politicians that do not mean well for the people of the state to use undue advantage of the occasion of the protests to cause chaos in the state.
13. This is why the Imo Youths Platform wants to use this open letter to the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the DSS to draw the attention of the security agencies to the underlying evils in the planned protests. We call on the IG of Police and DG of DSS to cause the stopping of the planned dubious protests forthwith to save lives and property. Doing this will prevent the impending cataclysm that the planned protests symbolize.
THE PLANNED PROTESTS ALREADY CAUSING PANIC IN THE STATE:
14. The planned protests have already created apprehension in the minds of the people. This is shown in a report posted on the social media recently, written by one Modestus Nwankpa, captioned: ANARCHY LOOMS AS JEFF NWAOHA YOUTHS GET SET TO JAM KELECHI NWAUGWU’S GROUP IN A SEPARATE STREET PROTESTS IN OWERRI. The author of the story began by warning that “Unless and until something drastic is done and urgently too by security agencies to forestall the looming crisis that may degenerate into anarchy in Imo State, giving the current mobilization and assembling of all arsenal of protest by two different groups in Imo state who have all slated their street Protests in Owerri on 3rd of July, 2017, the precarious security situation in the state may worsen and the relative peace finally evaporate.”
15. He went on, noting that: “Incidentally but suspiciously yet deliberately arranged to jam force for force, the two protests will hold the same time, the same date and in the same state capital. The state is set to witness a collision of two diverse political interest groups as both of them shall be hitting the streets of Owerri to embark on a pro and anti Okorocha protests.”
16. He further noted that “The Jeff Nwoha group is fierce, notorious or rather has the history of jamming such system any time Okorocha’s political traducers came calling. Inside his group comprises of such Youth groups like: Imo Pilots (Keke Operator), Imo Youth Council, Youth Assembly of Nigeria, National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Youths for Defense of Democracy, Youth Mandate, Niger Delta Rescue Movements, Women for Good Governance, Imo state Amalgamated Market and Traders Association, National Union of Imo State Students, among other ‘Kparakpo’ Youth Bodies.
CONCLUSION
17. Imo Youths Platform hates to take the law into their own arms, but we cannot watch any group(s) to destroy the peace we earnestly need in whatever guise and nomenclature. Therefore, in the event that the Police and the DSS allow the planned protests to go on as scheduled, Imo Youths Platform which believes in the future of all youths in the state will occupy the streets on the said date to confront these evil forces and manipulators who are set out to destabilize the state for their personal aggrandizement
18. Imo is peaceful and nobody should be allowed to cause breach of the peace and cause chaos and public disorder for the selfish political motives and personal aggrandizement of few disgruntled politicians. Politicians who believe that politics is a game should endeavor to play by the rules of the game and settle their political differences politically and not create chaos in a state we all love.
The security agencies should see this matter beyond the prism of letter writing but as pure whistleblowing to save a looming cataclysm in Imo State.
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