* Lists gains of Muslim, Christian cohabitation
CHIGOZIE AMADI
Governor Hope Uzodimma has boosted the operational readiness confidence of the police in Imo State, procuring additional 32 operations vehicles and refurbishing 11 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) for the Command.
At a brief hand over of the vehicles to the police yesterday, Uzodimma said the essence was to enable the operatives “continue in their efforts towards the fight against crime and criminality and security of lives and property in the State.”
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Oguwike Nwachuku, quoted him as saying that making security equipment and facilities functional was vital in the operations of the police.
He said government assembled all abandoned police vehicles in the command that were littered all over the state and got them refurbished for further use by the police.
The governor said he believed that the repaired APCs and other vehicles would be deployed to the field for operations as a way to support the police in their efforts to reduce crime and criminality to the barest minimum in the society.
Receiving the APCs and other operational vehicles, the Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, Alhaji Aboki Danjuma said that the vehicles were originally procured by the government and that the same government led by Uzodimma undertook to rehabilitate them after they got bad.
He acknowledged that they got dilapidated and damaged as a result of use over time and that a concerned Uzodimma undertook to repair them so that they can be deployed in all areas of the state for the purpose of protecting lives and property as well as fighting crime and criminality.
Danjuma affirmed that the vehicles will be deployed for the purposes they are meant for noting that “the Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) will monitor their management and use, as the vehicles will definitely be used to ensure reduction in crime rate and criminality in Imo State.”
The Deputy Governor, Chinyere Ekomaru and her husband, Chukwuma, the member representing Okigwe zone in the National Assembly, Senator Patrick Ndubueze, the Chief of Staff Barr. Nnamdi Anyaehie and members of the state expanded executive council and members of the Imo State House of Assembly witnessed the handover ceremony.
Meanwhile, Uzodimma said that the benefits derivable from the cohabitation of Muslims and Christians in Imo State in particular and Nigeria in general cannot be quantified.
He spoke at the Banquet Hall of the Government House Owerri while feting Muslims in Imo State who were gladly joined by their Christian neighbours to celebrate this year’s Eid- el- Kabir, otherwise called festival of sacrifice.
Also, the governor congratulated the fathers in Imo State on the occasion of this year’s International Father’s Day, saying their support to his government in building a virile society cannot be discountenanced.
Uzodimma said love, unity, peace, growth, development and more, will be guaranteed in the country if members of the Muslim and Christian community decide to cohabit, not just in Imo State but elsewhere in Nigeria.
He congratulated the Muslim faithful for successfully completing their fasting and for the privilege of being alive to witness the 2024 Festival of Sacrifice ( Eid- el-Kabir), urging them to wear tolerance like a cloth.
In calling for continuous unity among members of the Muslim community and by extension, their cohabitation with other religious faiths, Uzodimma reminded his audience that their faiths are simply means of getting to their destination, which is God.
“We cannot grow in an atmosphere of rancour, hatred, killing, blood-letting, armed robbery and other vices which both the Koran and the Bible condemn,” the governor said adding that, “tolerance is the name of the business, and with it inclusive growth and development will be achieved”.
Uzodimma thanked the Christian community for the solidarity they showed to their Muslim brothers and sisters by turning up in their numbers to be part of the “common communion.”
“If you can eat together, it means you can live together, work together and even protect your environment together,” the governor counselled them, adding, “it is now time to interrogate our consciences and do those things that please God.”
Earlier, the leadership of the Muslim community in Imo State assured Uzodimma that they had seen that nothing compares to unity, hence promised to remain united in all their endeavours.
Alhaji Bashir Uwakwe who spoke for his colleagues thanked the governor for deeming it necessary, again, to fete them in Government House in what they described as unquantifiable show of love to them and their faith, promising to be of good behaviour and to make positive impact in Imo State.
