Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has accused members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of hijacking the Eastern Security Network (ESN) from the Southeast governors after they had concluded plans to roll out the security outfit.

Uzodimma, who disclosed this when the members of the State Correspondents Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by The Nation correspondent, Chris Njoku, paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Owerri, said that the governors had hitherto agreed and put in place arrangements to set up the Eastern Security Network (ESN), but the name was hijacked by the members of these boys, IPOB, who used the outfit to commit a lot of mayhem in the Southeast.

According to the governor, “The Attorneys General of the five Southeastern states prepared a memo on the same outfit and the five Southeast governors, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Southeast leaders accepted and tried to roll it out only for the members of the IPOB to hijack the name.

“But, we’re taking a review of the situation and as soon as we’re through, we’ll come up with another name and roll out a security outfit for the Southeast. We’ll not allow hoodlums to overrun the region because we have a responsibility to protect our people. I want to tell you that there’s no failure of government in the Southeast”, the governor said.

Uzodimma also disclosed that the governors of the five South Eastern states would be holding a summit in Owerri to fashion out modalities for the setting up of a security outfit for the region.

The Governor added that the Southeast governors would not want to copy what other regions have done, especially with the pressure put on them after the formation of Amotekun by the Southwest governors.

He said that the new outfit would be different from others.

The governor, who also spoke on the recovery of property allegedly looted by the former administration, denied witch-hunt allegation but expressed his commitment to ensuring that justice is done.

He disclosed that Eastern Palm University has been gazetted while government would soon gazette its finding on the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Lands and related Matters.