The Imo state governor, Hope Uzodimma, on Wednesday said that the time is up for hoodlums and their sponsors terrorising the state.

Uzodimma spoke in Owerri, during the presentation of additional security vehicles and gadgets to operation search and flush patrol team in the state.

The governor said he would achieve his plan by taken war to their hideouts, hamlets to flush them out of Imo.

According to Uzodimma among other things said: “The presentation of more vehicles and security gadgets to our Operation Search and Flush team. It is a bold statement on our iron-clad resolve to flush out criminals from our dear state. It is a signal to bandits, hoodlums and trigger-happy criminals that their time is up in Imo State.

“Again this event further underscores the fact that our government can never be intimidated by criminals and their sponsors. It also reaffirms our commitment to the protection of lives and property of all citizens of the state including those on transit.

“You will recall that just a few days after I assumed office as the governor of Imo State, I inaugurated the security outfit known as Operation Search and Flush,(OSF), which brought together all the different security agencies to work as a team to fight every form of criminality.

“The objective then and now is to rout and root out every aspect of crime in our state. I empowered the outfit with a record of 100 patrol vehicles and sophisticated communication equipment to help them achieve the objective.

There is no doubt that that intervention yielded positive results, the recent pockets of crime here and there notwithstanding.”

“In like manner, we shall do all that we can to ameliorate the pains of families who lost their loved ones in the course of accidental engagements with security agencies. Our sincere condolences go to the affected families.

Furthermore, in the coming weeks, I shall be integrating the Imo State Vigilante outfit, otherwise known as Ebubeagu to complement the efforts of Operation Search and Flush, in fighting crime in the state.

“Let me, therefore, use the auspicious occasion of this memorable event to declare a total war against crime, criminality and their sponsors in the state. In this regard, I am today declaring a zero-tolerance for crime in Imo State. From now onwards Imo State shall be a no go area for criminals.

We shall take the war to the doorway of all criminals; their kindred, their hamlets and their hideout. We shall smoke them out and flush them out of Imo State,” Uzodimma said.