Anyanwu Vows To Address Insecurity, Unemployment If Elected As Imo Governor

Senator Samuel Anyanwu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’)’s candidate for the Imo State governorship election, has expressed concern over rising insecurity causing business closures in the state.

He said Imo used to be a great spot for hospitality, but now businesses are closing because it’s not safe and there aren’t as many customers.

Anyanwu during an interactive session with Imo State indigenes in Lagos weekend said: “Imo State used to be the hospitality hub of South East. It had the highest hotel industry in the zone but today, businesses are shutting down because of insecurity and low patronage.

“Currently, over 60 percent of hotels in Imo State are up for sale because of lack of patronage, based on insecurity, which is government-induced.”

“The first cardinal point of a very responsive and responsible government as enshrined in the constitution of Nigeria is to protect the lives of the people. Once you don’t do that, you have failed in your responsibility and a very sincere and honest government should resign.

“The unemployment rate in Imo State is 57.8 percent at present. Today, Imo State has the highest percentage of unemployed youths. The high unemployment rate is the reason for the insecurity.

“Why won’t there be insecurity when people are unemployed when people have no hope of tomorrow? The frustration and desperation in Imo State is second to none, people are committing suicide because they have no hope for tomorrow.”

Anyanwu said he wants to eradicate unemployment from the state: “When elected, I am going to create 23,200 jobs. When I was in the House of Assembly, we passed a law for employment; we employed 10,000 Imolites who were properly documented and paid salaries for 5-6 months before this government came and dissolved them.

“When I become the governor, I will reinstate those 10,000 jobs after proper documentation to know those who are still alive and those who are still in the state.

“To create jobs and to help curb the security in Imo State, I will establish a program called, community-based guard initiative. We have 660 autonomous communities in Imo State, in every community, we will take young men and women, 20 of them from each community who are ICT compliant.

“We are going to initiate them into the program. What that means is that we are going to create 13, 200 jobs under 100 days in office. What they will do is to help security agencies in intelligence gathering.”

Ebenezer Ken Obioma, the Lagos State Coordinator for SamJones Campaign and PDP candidate for Oshodi Isolo federal constituency 2 said that the event is aimed to rally Imo indigenes in Lagos for the upcoming election in Imo State on Saturday.

Kanyi Daily recalls that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against any attempt to rig the governorship election in Imo State.