A non-governmental organisation, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has called on the Imo State government to investigate circumstances that led to the destruction of three major buildings within the premises of Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Council, last week.
Condemning that act, suspected to have been carried out by arsonists, Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, tasked Governor Hope Uzodimma to use his good offices to probe the incident, identify the culprits, and bring them to book.
Nwanguma told The Guardian, yesterday, that he received information about the incident on Saturday, adding that both the National Population Commission (NPC) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) buildings were affected.
He said: “This ‘strange’ and disturbing incident was said to have happened on Thursday, February 1, few days after the immediate past sole administrator of the council, Chukwuma Ojukwu, one of those appointed by Uzodimma in the past four years, handed over to the director of administration and general services, being the next highest office holder in the local government administration.
“Ojukwu and his colleagues in other councils handed over, following the dissolution of the local council administrations in Imo by the governor. An insider estimated that the damaged property was worth about N500 million. This includes computers in the ICT centre, records of NPC and cost of rebuilding the three burnt buildings. This is yet to be verified.”
While preliminary findings are yet to establish the cause of the fire, the bush surrounding several buildings within the premises is believed to have accelerated the spread of the blaze.
However, some sources blamed the incident on alleged perennial neglect of the council’s facilities by past sole administrators.
RULAAC urged Uzodimma to summon all past sole administrators of the council in the past four years to account for what they did with funds made available to them.
“They need to offer explanations on why they failed to do their jobs,” the group added.
