Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, has claimed that insecurity in the state and the South-East is politically-motivated.
He stated this while appearing on Channels Television where he said insecurity worsened after he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for All Progressives Congress (APC).
Governor Umahi ruled out foreigners as the masterminds of insecurity in the geopolitical zone.
The Governor argued that despite the poor security situation in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has performed excellently.
To him, had Buhari not become President, insecurity situation in the country would have been worse.
He said the Federal Government’s handling of the nation’s security challenges is excellent.
The Governor who is a frontline aspirant into the office of president in 2023 under the All Progressives Congress, said in terms of naming all the indices that are needed to improve on what Buhari has done, he can be scored highly.
In his words; “If it is in infrastructure, security, economy, and uniting Nigerians, I think God has helped him to do very well in each and every one of them.
“Nigerians are very tired of political promises. They want to see evidence of what you have done. I have evidence of what I have done and I believe that what I have done could be replicated at the national level.
“The security situation in the country, I have always told people that if we didn’t have the kind of President we have that is very humane and not vindictive, nobody knows where Nigeria would have been by now.
“So, he has helped us tremendously in the security of the South-East. This thing started as a joke and today it is quite a big issue.”
On the insecurity in the South-East, Umahi said, “In my state, there was a time that the insecurity was highly politically-motivated and the targets were Imo State, APC, and Ebonyi State the moment I defected. We did not have this large scale of insecurity until I defected.”
He continued, “Well, you see, the security situation in the country, as I have always told people, that if we did not have the kind of President that is very humane and not vindictive, nobody knows where Nigeria would have been by now,” the APC presidential aspirant said.
“So, he [Buhari] has helped us tremendously in the security of the South East.
“What I call bandits are people that are engaged in violence and our people, South East people; the youths, some of them are also in this category,” Umahi added.
“When people tend to say the insecurity in the southeast is imported, I don’t buy that because I am a governor and get security reports. We have arrested a number of these people and it should be about five or ten per cent of the people outside the South East.
“So, you cannot say when you have up to 90 per cent of our youths that are engaged in this thing and you say we are being infiltrated by others.”
TheNewsGuru.com reports that while the administration came into power in a 2015 campaign filled with insecurity rhetoric and how it would end incessant bombings in many parts of the country, many other security challenges have emerged since 2015 when it took over power.
Analysts believe that thee security situation has worsened with new ones emerging on a regular basis in all parts of Nigeria.
