During the #EndSARS protest in October 2020, several police stations in the three local government areas in Mbaise, Imo State, were damaged. Since then, there has been little or no police presence in the area. Amby Uneze captures the efforts by Mbaise Global Foundation to rebuild the structures
What most Nigerians saw as a harmless clamour that started in faraway Lagos and some other major cities in the country, suddenly snowballed into an unimaginable crisis. The #EndSARS protest initiated by some concerned Nigerian youths and celebrities to voice out against the constant harassment, maiming and killings some of them suffered in the hands of a notorious and dreaded unit of the police force code named Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), now disbanded, was unfortunately hijacked by some political interests which attracted hoodlums that nearly brought the country to her knees.
Hope Uzodimma. Photo; TWITTER/HOPEUZODINMA1
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State believes that he is in charge and that nobody should be above the law. But, while the governor and his aides insist on executing laws made by the state, a former governor and Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District in the current Senate, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, had cited cites as obnoxious and barbaric a particular law made by the State House of Assembly via an executive bill, which sought to authorize the governor to detain any individual at will. The law may have been watered down due to outcry, but its vestiges are still reverberating.