By Esther Onyegbula

The Imo State People Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate in the November 11 election, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, has said businesses were dying and shutting down in the state because of insecurity.

Senator Anyanwu made this known during an interactive session with Imo state indigenes residing in Lagos at the weekend at Ajao Estate, Lagos, Nigeria.

Speaking at the event, Senator Anyanwu said: “Imo state used to be the hospitality hub of South East. It had the highest hotel industry in the South-east.

“But today businesses are shutting down because of insecurity and low patronage. Currently, over 60% of hotels in Imo State are up for sale. Because of a lack of patronage based on insecurity, and this insecurity 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.”

Lamenting, the PDP governorship candidate said: “The unemployment rate in Imo State is 57.8% presently. 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.”

On how he intends to curb unemployment in the state, Senator Anyanwu said: “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 five to six 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.”

Explaining further, Senator Anyanwu stated that “to create jobs and to help curb the security in Imo State, I will establish a programme 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 programme.

“What that means is that we are going to create 13,200 jobs under 100 days in office. They will do is to help security agency in intelligence gathering.”

Speaking at the event, the Lagos State Coordinator for SamJones Campaign and PDP House of Representatives candidate for Oshodi Isolo federal constituency 2, Ebenezer Ken Obioma, said that the event is to mobilise our people in Lagos State to participate in the upcoming gubernatorial election in Imo state.

“This election will determine the future of Imo State and its indigenes. We will not allow anybody or a group of people to continue to destroy Imo State.

“That is the only state we have, that is the only place we will go back to meet with our loved ones. So whatever we will do to change this government legitimately to allow peace to come back to Imo state, we must do. We want Imo state to be safe again, so business can thrive.”

Obioma, however, appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a very free, fair and incredible election.