I won’t repair damaged Ebonyi streetlights, police stations — Umahi

The Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has said his administration will not rebuild or repair many of the facilities destroyed by hoodlums last week as part of the fallout of the #EndSARS protests.

The governor disclosed this to journalists on Friday after an assessment tour of level of damage to institutions and public facilities in the state by the protesters.

Umahi, who confirmed that a total of four police stations were destroyed in the state: two each in Ohaozara and Abakaliki, insisted that government would not reconstruct those destroyed in Ohaozara.

He also said he would not repair or replace streetlights destroyed by the hoodlums, maintaining that it was the duty of Ebonyi citizens to safeguard infrastructural facilities meant for them.

Recall that one of the destroyed police stations in Ohaozara, the one in Okposi, was recently constructed by the state government to replace the old one.

The station had not been officially inaugurated before the hoodlums destroyed it as minor finishing work was still ongoing on the complex.

Umahi said, “A total of four police stations were destroyed: two in my local government, one in my community, Uburu, and another in Okposi. Those ones will not be rebuilt. My position is that any property that I have built and is destroyed, I will not rebuild it in my tenure.

“But the other two police stations, they are rented apartments, and I have never been into them. Although it is quite very tasking, we will do everything possible to build two new police stations in two different locations.

“The decorative lights that were destroyed, I’m not going to replace them. It is the duty of the citizens of Ebonyi State to protect their infrastructure.

“So anyone they allow hoodlums to destroy, it is either they produce the hoodlums, who we are hunting for, or it remains (damaged).”

On insinuations that the destructions were perpetrated by members of Indigenous People of Biafra, the governor said the allegation had been debunked by the group.

Umahi said, “IPOB already denied that their members were part of the destructions.”