Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has assured of the prompt implementation of the recommendations of the Committee set up by him to identify the damages caused by insecurity in the Okigwe zone in the past four years.
He said attention is to be paid to the restoration of infrastructure that will guarantee urgent value as regards the needs of the people in the area in question, and in a phased exercise that will be comprehensive.
Uzodimma spoke as the Imo State Government’s ‘Fact-Finding and Implementation Committee on communities affected by insecurity in Okigwe zone submitted its report to him, detailing the scale of destruction and loss of life following attacks in that part of the State over the past four years.
The Committee, inaugurated a few months ago, was mandated to assess and recommend measures for the rehabilitation of communities in Okigwe, Onuimo, Ihitte Uboma and Ehime Mbano Local Government Areas.
The members presented their findings at the Government House in Owerri over the weekend.
The Chairman of the Committee and Methodist Church Bishop Emeritus, Samuel Uche, said the report contains graphic accounts of what he described as “avoidable loss of lives, widespread destruction of property and human suffering estimated to cost billions of naira.”
He disclosed that no fewer than 273 lives were lost in the affected areas, describing the violence as “unreasonable madness.”
