More than 300 of the gunmen who unleashed terror on Imo for weeks are non-Igbo.
Governor Hope Uzodinma confirmed this in a statement released May 24 by hisChief Press Secretary Oguwike Nwachuku.
”Over 400 of those who carried out the threats on the state in the past have been arrested.
”The good thing is that over 70 per cent of them are not Igbo. We will crush anybody that attempts to cause mayhem or attack Imo people again.
”Government cannot surrender to blackmailers, hoodlums, and perpetrators of violence,” he said.
In the wake of the first series of attack, then police IG Ibrahim Adamu said police intelligence confirmed IPOB militia men are responsible for the mayhem.
There was a string of attacks on police and prison facilities across the state.
Uzodinma country home was not spared in the attacks, and IPOB itself threatened to take over the state house and rename it after the group’s leader security agents killed weeks ago.
IPOB is seeking a Biafran Republic, and its mode of going about it is characterized with signature attacks on the Nigerian security and election facilities across the region.
Still insisting the attacks were imported, the governor advised those planning to visit the state with any form of violence to have a rethink.
“Government is more than ever ready and prepared to keep Imo safe and secured.”