Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has advised Nigerians against tribalizing crime.
He defined crime as an offence against the nation, stressing that a criminal should be seen as a common enemy of the people.
Okorocha spoke Thursday, May 5, 2016, at the official launch of the Imo Peace Advocate Corps. He said, “Boko Haram elements, herdsmen, who kill or members of other groups, who engage in heinous crimes should be treated as criminals and their activities should not be viewed from the angle of where they come from, since a criminal is a criminal.”
According to the governor, “So much criminal activities are going on in our nation and time has come for us to treat criminals as criminals despite where they come from. An armed robber is an armed robber first and foremost. Where he comes from is secondary.
“Our nation is going through a very turbulent period and it takes only lovers of peace to ensure peaceful co-existence in our nation. Our mission as responsible indigenes of Nigeria is to ensure peace and pursue peace. I therefore charge the Peace Advocates to be diligent and work with sincerity of purpose.”
At the event, the Executive Secretary, Human Rights Commission, Prof. Ben Angwe, commended Governor Okorocha for championing peace across the nation
especially with free education through Rochas Foundation and said that such action calls for emulation.
Angwe noted that for Okorocha to ensure peace in his state and also be promoting peace across the nation portrays him as an architect of social engineering, promising that the Human Rights Commission would collaborate with the Peace Advocate Corps to ensure success.
The Director-General for Peace and Conflict Resolution, (Foreign Affairs), Prof. Oshita O. Oshita, commended the Imo governor for equipping the Imp Peace Advocate Corps to become the most effective in the nation, and assured that they would offer training to the members.
Also, the commandant, Imo Peace Advocate Corps, Peter Ohagwa, said that the corps under his command have resolved major crises in communities in the state and have also ensured peaceful co-existence between Imo indigenes and non-indigenes living in their midst.
