•Screens Northern traders
By Anolu Vincent / Snr Correspondent, Owerri
All Northern traders operating in Imo State will henceforth undergo a thorough screening by the state government to ascertain their proper identity.
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Northern
Affairs, Faisal Lawal, confirmed this to Daily Independent in Owerri.
Lawal said that the screening by the state government through his office had commenced already with the aim of identifying every Northerner that is operating business in the state, adding that the exercise would also affect those being engaged in security outfits in all parts of the state.
The screening, according to him, is in line with the recent declaration of “Know Your Neighbours” declared by
Governor Rochas Okorocha following the recent averted bomb explosion in a church in Owerri.
He said that the screening involves the name of the Northerner, his state of origin, the type of trade, endorsement by his chairman, trading location, adding that in the end an Identity Card bearing the person’s passport and signature of the chairman of the trading association and Sarki would be issued to the person for proper identification.
The SSA assured that at the end of the exercise, every northern trader would be fully documented, stressing that any body found without ID card might be new in the state and yet to be identified by his chairman of the trading location.
He recalled the warning to Northern traders by the state governor to stop coming into the state with their goods in the night.
Lawal said that many of the Northern traders have lived in Owerri for the past 100 years, assuring that any Northerner in the state has one type of business or the other he or she is doing and should therefore not terrorize the people of the state.
It would be recalled that Imo State government embarked on this exercise following the recent threat of Boko Haram terrorists in the state that saw the discovery of averted bomb Improvised Explosive Devices (IED).
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