Politics
By Anthony Isibor
PETER Obi, a former PDP vice presidential candidate, has lamented the indiscriminate arrest and execution of young people in the South East.
In an exclusive interview with Realnews June 5, Obi decried the security challenges in Imo State in particular, and South East in general, where people are being arrested at random and shot.
Worried over the security challenges, Obi said: “I have followed it. It is not just in Imo, it is all over the South East where people are being subjected to all manner of arrests. Yes, we want things to be done properly. If people have problem, investigate the people, make the arrest and follow the law; follow due process. These are our brothers, our sisters and all of us have to be involved.”
When asked why the South East is being singled out for special operations unlike what obtains in other crisis prone areas, Obi said that it was “A case of this people must be dealt with in a different way. If you are talking about special operations where they in the North before coming to the South East.
“In the South East, there is the peculiarity, a sense of you are not really wanted. You could see it. It is not a hidden thing. When you are talking about marginalization, it is not something people are trying to imagine. It exists.
“It is there. You could see it. You could feel it. It begins to creep into other areas and that’s why people are beginning to talk about the issue of dealing with all these as a nation in terms of restructuring.
“Let’s deal with it as a nation for every zone to be more accommodated so that every zone can feel a sense of belonging; every zone to be more productive to be able to deal with the economic problem,” Obi said.
He also stated that the government must begin to genuinely invest its resources in education, and in health to pull the people out of poverty.
According to him, “We have been preaching. I will not say it wasn’t done well in the 1960s when we had an economy and even in the 1970s when the economy was doing better than most countries we celebrate today in the world. Can you go and compare our reserve, our GDP with China in the 1980s. I am going to a conference today for Lateef Jakande, when he was in government in 1980, the GDP of Nigeria was more than than of China,” adding that the situation now has changed in favour of China.
– June 18, 2021 @ 08:31 GMT |
A.I
Tags: killings of young people in South East Obi decries indiscriminate arrest
