Less than 24 hours after some yet to be identified hoodlums burnt the Nnewi South Local government area headquarters, Anambra State governor, Chukwuma Soludo has personally visited the scene and commented on the incident.
Gov Soludo, touched by the incident which he described as callous and mindless said, “I was at Ukpor, the Nnewi South LGA Headquarters and the scene of last night’s attack by some arsonists. This mindless bloodletting and destruction of infrastructure does not define who we are! Nothing can justify these acts of criminality.
“As I looked at what is left of the rubbles, I asked myself, “in all this, who loses?”. Structures built from the taxes paid by the genuinely hard-working men and women on the streets are ruined for reasons that are incomprehensible to sane minds. The resources that should have been deployed to providing more for struggling tax payers, would now be channeled into reconstructing these destroyed buildings and rebuilding missing records. It is very impossible to make any meaningful progress this way.
“Quite frankly, ndị Anambra cannot be repressed by a few criminal elements. Our resolve to entrench law and order is total, no amount of wanton destruction will cower us.
“I remember with a deep sense of grief, the three gallant police officers – Inspector Murtala Saudi, Sgt. Mudassir Ahmed, and Sgt. Samuel Ishaya, who lost their lives to the Unknown Gunmen who attacked us at a meeting with the youths in my village on this day last year. We pledge to continue to take care of their families, and for their sake and many others who lost their lives to the sheer wickedness of a few misguided people, we shall not relent in our effort to make Anambra Liveable and Prosperous.”
A cross section of Imolites and others who commented on the incident said, “Gov Soludo’s patriotic act and show of concern by visiting the scene of the incident for on the spot assessment as soon as it happened speaks volume of the kind of person he is and his leadership attributes unlike some of his other colleagues who neither care nor show any kind of concern or empathy in the midst of mindless and bloodletting, arson and destruction of properties in their state and dormain. They neither make time to visit the scenes of such heinous incidents for on the spot assessment nor make meaningful statements.
Most times, it takes between two and three weeks for their aides to issue belated press releases, as if the dead, those whose houses and other properties were either burnt or destroyed, their families and loved ones are logs of wood.
“This is not only unfortunate but a heartless display of inhumanity and insensitivity in high places which the people need to pray fervently against.”
