#EndSARS: I’ll only rebuild two police stations, I won’t repair streetlights and the other police stations – Ebonyi governor

The Ebonyi State Government is to build two brand new Police Stations in Abakaliki to resettle two out of the four stations burnt by hoodlums across the State during the #EndSARS protest.

Governor David Umahi disclosed this to journalists on Friday after an assessment tour of the level of damages on 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 will not reconstruct those destroyed in Ohaozara.

He also added that 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 their enjoyment.

The destroyed Police Stations in Ohaozara, the one precisely in Okposi, was recently constructed by Governor Umahi to replace a near dilapidated old one.
The Station had not been officially commissioned for use before the hoodlums struck as minor finishing works were still ongoing on the complex.

Umahi explained: “A total of four Police Stations were destroyed: two in my Local Government, comprising 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.

“So, though 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.”

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

Umahi said: “IPOB already denied that their members were not part of the destructions.

“That means that those that destroyed our property were criminals to be dealt with accordingly.

“So we will do just that.”

Governor Umahi, who also visited some ongoing projects across the state during the tour, was accompanied by the Deputy Governor, Kelechi Igwe, and some members of the State Executive Council; Commissioner of Police, Phillip Maku; and heads of other Security Agencies in the State.