Governor Hope Uzodimma-led Imo government has accused ex-Governor Rochas Okorocha and his son-in-law Uche Nwosu of being brains behind banditry and kidnapping. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, Okorocha and Nwosu have been specifically mentioned by suspects who are in the custody of security agents, as being sponsors of kidnapping and banditry in Imo state, using their relationship with former ex-militants to perpetrate the crimes,” claimed Mr Uzodimma’s chief press secretary Oguwike Nwachuku in a statement on Tuesday. 

The Imo government insisted that Messrs Okorocha and Nwosu were “bent on using both overt and covert means to blackmail the police high command, which legitimately arrested Uche Nwosu.” 

“They are also actively seeking to dent the image of the fine security officers attached to the governor of Imo state,” the statement said. 

This accusation followed Mr Okorocha’s own claim that Mr Uzodimma was using security forces to carry out rogue operations.

“It appears to me as though the misery behind unknown gunmen has been unravelled by recent happenings. And what is (sic) unknown gunmen? Unknown gunmen now are set of policemen from government house…,” the Imo ex-governor alleged. “They get instruction from the government led by Hope Uzodinma and his CSO Shaba to go and arrest people, lock them up at will, and sometimes the whereabouts of these people are unknown.”