Hope Uzodinma, Imo State governor, has appealed to northerners not to leave the state.

Uzodinma made the appeal when the leadership of the northern community paid him a solidarity visit at the Government House in Owerri on Monday.

The northerners solicited his continued support in the face of recent pockets of insecurity affecting them.

There have been reports that northerners have been leaving in droves, following rising insecurity in the state.

However, Ibrahim Sulaiman, the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Gender and Vulnerable Persons (Men) and the Garkuwan Hausa (shield of Hausa community), Imo State, described the reports that Hausas are leaving Imo as untrue.

He described Imo as the safest place for them to live.

Uzodinma alleged that those behind the attacks on the state know that the northern community in Imo are backing him, adding that it was the reason they were being targeted.

“Those who are after you are after me and God will not allow them to succeed”, he said.

He, therefore, promised to enhance security in all the places northerners reside in the state.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Adamu Baba Sule, told the governor that they came to give moral support and pledge their solidarity to the governor.

He said regardless of the recent development, “Imo State remains the most peaceful and most accommodating to the northerners in the South East.”

He regretted that “bad political leaders in Imo State conspired with others elsewhere to cause problems for the people.”

Sule pleaded with Uzodimma to beef up security at their places of abode.