The Peoples Democratic Get together, PDP, Imo State chapter, has accused Governor Hope Uzodinma of using the Environmental Transformation Fee, ENTRACO, against the residents of the state.
The accusation adopted the latest demolition of Toronto Junction Market in Owerri North LGA the place items and properties had been destroyed with many individuals injured.
The occasion alleged that ENTRACO, underneath the Uzodinma administration, has turn out to be a terrorist group in disguise, warning that if nothing is finished urgently to handle its current actions, it could snowball into one thing extra harmful.
Components of an announcement issued by its spokesperson, Lancelot Obiaku, learn, “What occurred alongside Toronto/MCC Street, few days in the past, as captured by a CCTV digicam, is nothing brief of terror. We watched as males armed with cutlasses, bottles, and different harmful weapons pounced on motorists and merchants.
“We make daring to say that this isn’t enforcement. It’s violence. Any armed group that unleashes worry and bodily hurt on residents, irrespective of the identify it bears, matches the outline of a terrorist group. And our worry is that these males function underneath the safety of the Authorities.”
The occasion, whereas condemning the actions of the fee, asserted that ENTRACO was by no means designed to be aggressive in its operations.
PDP famous that the Fee was established in 2008 for the only goal of beautifying and sustaining a clear, inexperienced and wholesome surroundings within the state, together with overseeing sanitation, cleansing of gutters, planting of flowers and timber, and different efforts focused at creating an surroundings wholesome for human habitation.
The occasion recalled that in the course of the administration of Governor Ikedi Ohakim, underneath whose watch the Fee was established, that town was clear, and the individuals had been at peace with the company’s actions.
It regretted that currently, because the appointment of one Mr. Anyahie as Chairman of the Fee, the company has drifted from its founding goal.
“As an alternative of cleansing and beautifying the State, it has turn out to be a supply of every day torment to motorists, merchants, and small enterprise homeowners.
“Imo PDP wonders how the Imo State Visitors Administration Company, ISTMA, which already exists and which is empowered by legislation to deal with site visitors and parking violations will likely be in operation, whereas ENTRACO takes up the enterprise of wielding cutlasses and chasing drivers throughout town and state,” the assertion added.
The occasion expressed fear that as if what ENTRACO is doing isn’t sufficient, the state governor additionally empowered one of his aides to maneuver about with fierce trying males who wield all types of weapons within the identify of monitoring and analysis.
PDP alleged that with the present strikes, the federal government is not directly encouraging banditry and cultism.
*We hope that after they metamorphose to full blown terrorists, the federal government won’t flip round and accuse the opposition events of sponsoring terrorism within the state, because it has at all times, irrationally, finished.
“We insist that if by any means the federal government has given ENTRACO authority they need to perform their duties with respect for human dignity. The use of violence against residents runs opposite to the oath the Governor took to guard lives and property in Imo State and the legislation establishing the Fee.”
PDP additional recalled that simply two months in the past, Naze youths blocked the ENTRACO workplace in protest over the killing of their brother in an accident brought on by the operatives of the Fee.
It identified that in different states and cities, site visitors offences are curtailed with out cruelty.
“The Abia State Harmonized Process Forcr, ASHTF, enforces order firmly however humanely. Their officers are educated, they usually hear. You possibly can purpose with them. They don’t behave like road thugs, cultists and terrorists.
“It’s due to this fact a disgrace that the identical can’t be mentioned of ENTRACO officers who appear to derive pleasure from inflicting ache. This isn’t good for a State as soon as identified for its civility and love for training.
“Allow us to make it clear, the courageous resistance of youths alongside MCC Street, which sadly led to bloodshed, ought to function a warning.
“When authorities businesses turn out to be a supply of oppression, the individuals will finally rise in self-defense. If nothing is finished to verify the excesses of ENTRACO, we worry that at some point the scenario could escalate past management,” the assertion harassed.
PDP known as on the governor to cease ENTRACO from harassing and destroying the companies of petty merchants who do enterprise with out obstructing motion.
PDP maintained that victims of the actions of the Fee are individuals solely making an attempt to fend for his or her households however regretted that they’re continuously chased, crushed, and stripped of their trades.
As well as, it known as for the employment of proper individuals and correct coaching of officers employed for any variety of enforcement within the state, advising that if any authorities company should implement a coverage, it should method it by engagement with the individuals straight affected and all stakeholders.
“That is what the PDP will do if it had been in energy within the state. The concept of waking up one morning to start the destruction of individuals’s means of livelihood should be shunned.
“Imo individuals solely wish to dwell in a clear and orderly metropolis, sure, however not in worry. They wish to respect the legislation, however not on the value of their dignity and security. ENTRACO should, due to this fact, be reined in and redirected to its unique responsibility which is environmental transformation, not intimidation.”
