Child Kidnapping: Udenwa Offers N5m Reward
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From Cletus Akwaya in Abuja
Governor of Imo State, Chief Achike Udenwa, has offered a reward of N5 million to any citizen of the state with useful information that could lead to the arrest of kidnappers, who recently invaded the state.
Many childen were reported missing about three weeks ago, in circumstances akin to the notorious Otokoto saga of the 1990s, when children and adults disappear in the state.
Udenwa, who spoke to THISDAY in Abuja, said government would offer a reward of N5 million to anybody with clues to the activities of the kidnappers.
"It is our responsibility as a government, to ensure that people feel secured where ever they are," he said.
On local governent administration, Udenwa said he was not guilty of the alleged diversion of council funds by some governors, explaining that most commentators confuse statutory deductions made from accounts of councils with diversion of funds.
He gave the list of statutory deductions as training funds, salaries of primary school teachers, overhead for the State Primary Education Board (SPEB), salaries and allowances for tradtional rulers and taxes.
"We are one state not touching money meant local government areas, what we are doing in Imo State is to re-organise the local governments to be more effective. I challenge them to provide boreholes where there is none, I tell them whatever you want to do should be what will last long, it is not just about grading roads but tarring them, even if it is one kilometre," he said.
The governor reviewed his experience in partisan politics and said he was disappointment with the prominence usually accorded those he called "noise makers," adding that he "doesn't believe noise making is politics and that is where we get it wrong. Sometimes the media will say this man is a good politician because he, makes a lot of noise, he tells a lot of lies. That is not what politics is all about. Politics is all about thinking more about what your people want and doing what your people want. In Nigeria, we believe that one who speaks from the two sides of his mouth is a good politician, no."
He said, he believes in the "Aminu Kano School of politics," which emphasises welfare of the people and common goods vowing that even though the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not a leftist party, he would not abandon his original idea of politics as influenced by the late radical Kano political activist, Mallam Aminu Kano, who he said was his mentor.
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