Senator Samuel Anyanwu, governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the November 11 election Imo State, disclosed that businesses were shutting down in the state because of insecurity.
Anyanwu, who stated in an interactive session with Imo State indigenes in Lagos weekend, said: “Imo State used to be the hospitality hub of SouthEast. It had the highest hotel industry in the zone but today, businesses are shutting down because of insecurity and low patronage.
”Currently, over 60 per cent of hotels in Imo State are up for sale because of lack of patronage, based on insecurity, which 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.
“The unemployment rate in Imo State is 57.8 percent at present. 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 for 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 5-6 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.
“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,” he added.
