 Emo State PDP calls for a resignation of Governor Hope Uzzadimma. And we can't give Nigeria a brand new constitution, says the Nigerian Senate. While this is plus politics, and I am very anarcho. A war of war has emerged in the Emo State government regarding the insecurity challenges facing the state and the nation. Reacting to what it termed as a denigrating situation, the People's Democratic Party PDP called on Governor Hope Uzzadimma to resign, arguing that Uzzadimma had failed to secure the lives and property of the people in Emo. Meanwhile, in a swift reaction, the Emo State government through the commissioner of information, Declan Emelumba, said the statement credited to the PDP is the real perpetrators of the chaos. He called on security agencies to arrest and prosecute the leadership of the People's Democratic Party in the state for fueling the unrest. While joining us to have this conversation is Collins Opuzor. He is the director general of Emo State PDP New Media. And joining us also is Ugochiku Nzeke and APC Chiftin. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us on the show. Thank you. Thank you, my sister. Let's start with the People's Democratic Party. You have been calling for the resignation of the governor of the state. We all who are watching from out here, we can see that Emo State has all of a sudden become a hotbed of sorts. And I'm wondering, because most of the analysts that have spoken about what's happening in Emo State have credited to the political atmosphere in the state, the chaos between both the sitting party, that's the ruling party, and the opposition. So why are you asking the governor, I beg your pardon, to vacate his seat? What change would it bring? How would it affect the insecurity in Emo State? Alright, thank you so much for the wonderful opportunity you've given to us. The fact on ground is that ever since the governor of Emo State, Opuzor, got the supreme court judgment that brought him in, there has been chaos in the state. The people have always come out to express their dissatisfaction and their hard drive reservation over his images as governor. But as that was trying to subside, another factor that has been fueling the more or less the legitimacy crisis of the governor is his leadership pattern. He does not consult, he doesn't listen to anyone. He is autocratic, he has evolved the worst form of dictatorship in Emo State. That exactly has been the situation in Emo, but to get to the immediate cause of this issue, there was a crisis in Olo around January this year. There were skirmishes, a community, particularly Omotanze, and the neighboring community, Oporo, had been complaining relentlessly about the activities of some heist men. The governor never listened to them, he never cared for them. As a matter of fact, the governor had even foreclosed the possibility of listening to the people by dissolving or sacking the duly elected community leaders of town unions. Because the governor came without winning an election, he had no broad base at the grassroots. So he felt that the only way that he could endear himself to the grassroots or more or less control and capture the grassroots was to sack the community leaders and impose on them his own strategies, his own moves that belong to his camp hope. Having done that, a crisis was brewing in the communities and the people could no longer complain to him because he had foreclosed the possibility of communication and he had shot himself completely out from every leadership in the grassroots. Then what happened was these people could not allow themselves to always be killed. What they had to do was to fall back on non-state actors, which was a very bad thing because the whole essence of governance is the security of life and property and when the governor could not come to the rescue of people, even the traditional ruler in Orlo said that he made several attempts to reach out to the governor but he never yielded to anything. Then at last, crisis began and let it be or note that when the conflict in Orlo began it took hope for them about three days into the conflict to address the people of Orlo said and when he addressed them eventually he said he just heard that some militants in Orlo did so-so-so turn and that he was going to crush them. First is that he succeeded at misdiagnosing the situation, describing it as militancy without knowing what exactly happened. Even despite the cause by some well-meaning emo individuals and civil society organizations for him to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to find out exactly what happened in Orlo, he never did that. Eventually, those non-state actors, some people can describe them as anything but there was an infiltration into emo states that took advantage of the failure of governance to now start attacking people. So if we thread this issue to his origin, we will know that it actually began in the Sinetora district of Puzo De Ma. In his hometown, he was unable to secure the people. He was unable to reach out to them when they needed help most. And that was what brought us where we are today. Can I ask a question in Mr Puzo if you don't mind? Can I ask a question? I want to come in there. You have, of course, ruled out what you think the reasons are for the insecurity and the skirmishes in emo states. The PDP is supposed to be an opposition. I mean, this is who you are. What did the PDP do in the case where the people were agitating for something? What role did the PDP play? Because you're supposed to, of course, highlight the mistakes or the shortcomings of the government in power and call their attention to whether they like it or not. What was the role of the PDP in all of this? Because you cannot also be seen as talking the fire, can you? Thank you so much. You've already answered the question. We are supposed to speak out when we see things that are not going the way they ought to go. And we have been speaking out. We have been calling his attention to some of these drivers of conflict. For instance, when he dissolved the Tau Unions and gave instructions to the Interim Management Committees of local governments to replace them. I was on air. I told emo people that this was a major driver of conflict in the communities. And some people said no. And he rented the current person he uses as outgoing chairman wanted to join the issues with me publicly and called me names. Yes, we have always been pointing out these issues. And today this is where we are. So what is happening in emo states is simply as well a catastrophic failure of governance. The absence of governance. Emo is more or less an ungoverned space. And that has created the opportunity for all manner of non-state actors to invade our space. And today we can no longer clip. As opposition party we have always highlighted these issues. Okay, let me go to Mr Ugochiku Nzeikwe who is an APC chieftain. While the PDP is leaving this solely at your draw step because you're the government in power and the man at the top is obviously also in your party and he's been blamed for all of the unrest in the states. The most difficult to digest is the fact that your high level party chieftain was killed in your state. But then your governor has come out to blame the PDP and Point Fingers at them saying that they are solely responsible for what's happening in the state. How is that? First of all I want to state here clearly I am not talking for the state government as you have introduced me. I am a chieftain, an APC chieftain. And of course I want to tell you that if you look at the one my brother was talking you can observe and see the anger in him first of all. You can see the anger in him and that's why some of the problems in this country we always get it wrong. Nigerians are bad losers. It is only in this country that people will lose their election and say if it's not me nobody else will stay there and they will do everything possible to stop it. And I want to say for all I know and care about politics, you know that line the moment the election ends and a leader emerges everybody is supposed to put hands on there to develop the state of the country but you see in the aspect of Emo PDP this young man, my friend and my brother he had been describing what happened in a particular meeting meaning that he knows too well what transpired there, what happened there I'm not even sure he's from there and if he has gotten all these things I can put it to him that all these things that he's been describing that they are the brain behind them because they are just looking for a way to call a dog a bad name. Let me say this you see in the Emo state people are saying that a governor emerge through the Supreme Court what they always say if you go for an election somebody wins and you feel because you are smart you go somewhere and write the right result put that person whether you put the person in a 10 position or in a 9 position the end of the day the court sees that the person naturally won that election they will declare him winner it doesn't matter where you write his name somehow they are afraid of allowing the winner even to come second because they know that he has a good case by the time he goes to court the court will find out what transpired and they will declare the person winner so trying to write somebody's name as number four or number five does not make any sense what makes sense is the constitution the law so he has gone to court and then they declare him winner so I believe that if you love your states whatever things you think you would have done if you are the governor you should come and advise the sitting governor on how to develop your states will your governor take advice from the opposition if they give it because I mean I'm just thinking about it in Nigeria has there been any precedence where opposition had made had given ideas as to what they think a sitting governor should do and a governor took it will your governor consider if the ideas were brought to you? Listen, when you give a genuine advice if you always come to criticize when you give advice and the governor the governor will have an input that has a listening ear I can tell you that for free he is a man that has gotten enough a lot of experience he has been in the Senate they are more than one time and people kept putting him in before he became the governor so for somebody who has been in the legislature he has been a legislator in the Senate and has stayed there for two times if he doesn't like him they will not be putting him in so now they voted him to become a governor and that can guarantee and tell you that there is a man that listening to you anytime you give him advice and he's been telling people let me say this to you immediately after that election and Supreme Court declare him after the tribunal case somebody from the PDP said that he would make the state uncomfortable for him the truth of the matter is that time he would who's the person can you name and shame and do you have it on tape that's why I said why is it printed that the person said he was going to make the state a governor before the end of this program if I remember his name I will mention it he's a chief PDP chief then and the police in fact myself with somebody else who reported the matter to the people and said these people are threatening this government what do you do unfortunately the CP that time was transferred out of the way and today we started seeing all manner of harassment all manner of feelings a lot of things happening and let me tell you why some people who want to blame PDP you see this is a governor he's just a governor whether you have crisis in your village caused by anybody I don't want to mention any more people who are causing crisis his primary assignment is to protect life of property that is his primary assignment so nothing stopping him from sending people to that particular place to go and bring back peace but if he's doing that and people continue to frustrate him because they feel that they want him to fail everything is about 2023 they at all cost want him to fail for these people who are trying to I'm sorry Mr. who are the people who you think are trying to frustrate the governor is it the PDP because Mr. Declan has asked the police to arrest members of the People's Democratic Party pointing them out as the people who are responsible for the insecurity in the state where is the proof that he has who are these members of the PDP does he have a list of names or does he have evidence as to the fact that these are the people who are causing mayhem in the state you know you know when you are in a family and the family is experiencing a kind of problem everybody starts to meet on how to bring back peace and one or two brothers refuse to attend victims naturally somebody will say that they are enjoying from the problem the family is having PDP as our brothers and sisters I mean members of people as our brothers and sisters ok economy of the state today if we start having problem the end point of it does not know if you are a PDP member or if you are an APC member when you prevent people from going out to do the normal business it will affect the person operating in the hotel it will affect the market woman and that does not nobody knows if you are an APC or APC what we preach is everybody must come together to assist the government to bring back peace however why one will want to start learning PDP on all these things look at the kind of anger this is my brother he is using to talk about APC with all these things going on they hardly they hardly come out to condemn the way and manner people are fighting on the streets they hardly come out they want to cash in on that they want to say that the government has stayed because people are having problems in the states what we had expected them to do would have been maybe to say please this state belongs to all of us let's come back together and look for a way to embrace peace rather they will go there ok look at them asking somebody to resign so in your words in your words I apologize for speaking over you but in your words being an opportunity is in this case because you are referring to the PDP as being opportunistic jumping on all the unfortunate things that are happening to criticize the government so does being an opportunity and I am not in any way speaking for the PDP man because we are going to take his thoughts does that in its wholeness qualify the PDP and their members as being responsible for insecurity if they are being opportunistic does it really make that call what I have said first of all I have said before the end of this program if I remember that name I will mention it to you I said a PDP chief then said that if Supreme Court gave somebody the government should see that they will make him say that and I said I will mention the name because that one is one secondly there is something that happened one day let me give you another instance there is something that happened one day it was alleged that the governor sent military men to a place to go and kill okay I have mentioned it to you before when you send security men to go feel like crisis anywhere you don't send them to go and kill you send them there to go and bring peace so a lady a lady was holding a telephone and a handset I don't know whether that guy was talking was talking from her brother or whatever crying that they killed they killed the brother they killed the brother and while she was crying you know when somebody dies naturally the thing that will come to your mind you know I am going to lose this my brother I am going to lose my sister you promised to do this who are you going to leave this to them for us brother the lady was busy shouting about mbaka mbaka it shall not be with you now if somebody is mentioning mbaka who is mbaka what is mbaka's involvement in the immotive policies mbaka's involvement in the immotive policies he put off a prophecy that said the then governor will be removed and hopefully we will take over since that time it's natural that the PDP people have not I think we lost the audio for Mr. Zekre but let's go to the PDP man back to you Mr. Puzo there's been a lot of allegations of course laid up against your party being opportunistic taking advantage of situations and who is this party chieftain of yours that has allegedly said that he was going to make the state ungovernable and like you said to me earlier on that you have been he said that you're not constructively criticizing and you're not giving ideas to help the government push the state forward why is the PDP not doing that alright thank you so much my brother and my leader here has left with a lot of allegations against us and I have to clarify all of them one by one to begin with the anger we reflect the mood of people as I am talking to you now people were killed in a motet today yesterday people were killed in a motet the day before people were killed in a motet in their numbers I don't even know whether I will survive this night because people are being killed on a daily basis and these killings are not selective you cannot tell who will be next so we are not going to romanticize we are not going to romanticize the motet we must be serious for once and tackle this problem but his question is what ideas have you brought to the governor to help push the state forward do you not want peace back in your state he has made a lot of allegations I'm getting to that secondly is that he says the chieftain of our party I laid that he was going to make a motet on governor as a result of the mandate that people freely gave to our party but was stolen through a judicial coup we don't know who the person is he who alleges should prove they always lie to them to say who the person is and we know we live in an era of technology then we go and manufacture anything to use to frame anybody so we don't know and we don't hear it possibly for the first time I heard it earlier today from the commissioner for information and I'm hearing it for the second time so we don't know we don't have knockouts how can we cause this security with our pen and our smart phones and laptops how? so they are just confused let me tell you one thing who is the man who came to power without one line of agenda without any manifesto before the governorship election in 2019 there were three debates number one was the one that BBC organized they never participated second one was the one that Himo community in Europe organized at Rockview he was never there Himo Eldar's advisory council organized at Kato he wasn't there so he never debated Himo affairs he never engaged in any meaningful conversation to know what the problems of Himo state were and are and how to go about solving them so he was suddenly thrown up through a judicial coup and he came to Himo state and felt that he was going to govern the state through fiat if you listen to the statement that he is in the government issue today he convinced the meeting of traditional rulers that if they don't submit to him the names of criminals in their communities he will threaten them literally that they must go and fish out the criminals in their communities and bring to him threatening our royal father that they must impeach how would a traditional ruler know criminals is he a justice in chief is he a court have you been tried in a competent court of law so his style of governance is setting the state ablaze that is what is going on and the criminals here can never ever be toyed with they can never be romanticized it's real and it's happening then getting to our interventions let me tell you the truth it is the government of the day that sets the tune of politics if you have a government that has decided never to listen if you have a government that has defined itself by its opposition to any wise council if you have a government that has made it a pastime to blame everything on the opposition if you have a government that has a history of incarcerating vocal voices we are helpless we can't do much therefore what we have decided to do is that both of them should be eased out if we had a functional house of assembly that should have been their work to quietly ease him out because the style of governance has set him on fire what will that solve in the interim? I think I asked you that question you didn't answer me easing out the governor in the middle of his tenor what will that solve how will that solve the insecurity in the state because like the APC man said whatever the situation is it's affecting both APC and PDP doesn't know what party you belong to so easing the governor out of office what does that change what change does it bring in the interim what kind of suffer does it bring in the interim I would like for him to answer it brings a change it brings us with a glimmer of hope and the possibility of a leadership that may engage with the people in solving this problem because what it brings us is the prospect of having a leadership that may engage with the people in solving this problem because as a stance now who's not mad at nothing he doesn't label it he's only issuing threats issuing orders threatening to jail to maim to do this is that how to govern a people so we can't be it anymore we are faced with a very dire situation and we need a leadership at this point okay I'm going to go back to Mr Zekwe yesterday on our news bulletin we had a member of the House of Representatives calling out the police saying that they're killing his constituents on a daily basis and saying that these people are killers or that they were responsible for the death of some persons and he's saying that his people are being unjustly killed on a daily basis what is the governor of a state doing if people are randomly being killed under his watch in the guise of well the police is trying to get the people who killed a certain person where is the due diligence here where is the rule of law and the modus operandi of the police in this regard is a bit confusing and blurry and if a member of representing a constituency is calling out the police force there's obviously a problem isn't there first of all let me I can only to hear that we have crisis not only in Imopepe today but in some part of Nigeria if not everywhere and it's not in Imopecilia in Imo state there are a lot of agitation Imo state is not left out and some of these existence are real some are correct some are not but you see when you want to trickle it down to Imo state and what is happening here my brother since you've been asking him question you can see that high level of anger still in them and it was thought that gave Senators hope that office they are still angry about it they don't want to see anything good in him and that's why I'm talking today they are still calling on him to resign so I want to say clearly that these people who are this anger this angry they can do anything to create a problem for you to feel that the state is not doing well let me give you one example you see I have mentioned that somebody was crying with a handset of a man that was I'm so sorry Mr. Enzekui because we're out of time I'm going to ask my question again a certain member of the House of Representatives in your state has been saying that people are being killed randomly and these people are his constituents and the governor of your state doing the APC I'm certain that this person obviously also is a member of your party what is being done to deal with the number of people that are being killed under the guise of the police trying to put an end to insecurity innocent lives according to that member of representing I can't remember the constituency he constantly accused the police of killing innocent people is that not also part of the problem you're trying to end insecurity but then you're killing innocent people allegedly what is being done about that nobody nobody I can tell you that the government of APC in him will say is not killing any innocent person he didn't say the government first of all first of all let me tell you why I have told you before that the primary assignment of a chief secretary whether at the government level or at the state level is to protect life and property if you hear that there's a problem in him will state university for instance and the governor is informed if he sends his men to him will state university is only to protect the students there but if somebody that is very funny is behind that particular thing there somebody that want to remove the government is behind that particular act there somebody that does not like the governor somebody that does not like APC is behind it by the time you send anybody there they may even create more problem for you to say that the governor sent people to kill do you know that most of the people who kill two people outside are not trained soldiers or trained police between a trained police officer who do you think that would make mistake using gun and if governor want those students to be killed there's no point sending security to that place to help them allow them to die because he loves his people if my friend is talking the governor of him does not conduct he does not allow to put his authority he is lying I know this governor too well and when you say a federal member of the House is saying that his people are being killed we do not know who is killing the people well I'm talking about the people of Medellin if somebody want the government to be removed the person can do anything for the governor to be removed I want to say thank you to you Colin Zepuza is the director general of the People's Democratic Party new media and Ugochuku Nzeke is an APC chieftain in Emore State thank you very much gentlemen for being part of the conversation we have to go now well thank you all for staying with us we'll take a short break in there when we return we'll look at the possibility of having a new Nigerian constitution even though the National Assembly is saying they cannot give us one we'll be right back