Friday Olokor, Jos
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has said that it may be forced to ask President Muhammadu Buhari to sack security chiefs if the level of insecurity in the country does not improve.
The Chairman of the NGF, Abdulazeez Yari, said this on Friday when he and some other governors under the aegis of NGF, paid Governor Solomon Lalong of Plateau State a condolence visit at the Government House in Jos.
The NGF, which commiserated with him and the people of the state about the recent killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen, said the governors “collectively condemned what happened in Plateau State.”
According to the Zamfara State Governor, the 36 governors have agreed to convene a one-day meeting with security chiefs to find out where things have gone wrong and that they could be forced to advise President Muhammadu Buhari to sack them accordingly.
The decision to have the meeting with security chiefs was part of the resolutions taken after the NGF marathon meeting held on June 27 which lasted for over five hours.
Yari said, “We have agreed to have a one-day interface with security chiefs very soon to ensure that they understand where we are and how these things are affecting relationship among citizens.
“As leaders, we are under a time bomb. They (security agencies) should do their job, or else we will have no option but to tell the President that they should leave. Our hands are on deck; the little resources that we have, we are putting them in the area of security, instead of development.
“In our meeting held on June 27 which lasted over five hours and ended at 2:00 am, what took most of our time was the issue of insecurity, which we felt, as leaders, we must step in. It happened to all parts of the country, in most of the states, like my own state, Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto and Kebbi states; these people are all over there.
“At that meeting, we collectively condemned what happened in Plateau State and other parts of the country and looked at how we could come as one army to tackle these enemies.”
Yari reiterated stepping aside as Chief Security Officer of his state or bearing the title of CSO after being attacked by angry mob.
He said, “I mentioned to the NGF that between March 1 and June 1, there were 115 incidents in my state and over 435 lives were lost. As leaders, how can we fold our hands while our people continue to suffer left, right and centre? The incident which happened in Plateau State is the worst ever since 2012 and the worst happened in my state when 235 (persons) were killed within two hours and another 80 corpses were found after the incident.
“We in NGF collectively condemn what happened in Plateau State and we encourage our President that, whoever is found to have a hand in these incidents in which people have lost their lives and property, must be brought to book. I think because something like that does not happen, that is why some people are taking things for granted.
“I think and hope that this will be the last incident within this administration in this magnitude because there are so many things going on and one is under intense pressure. It has been in the news that I said look, I better step down as the CSO or not to be addressed the CSO because my hands are tied.”
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, who described the killings as “arrant nonsense”, said the entire people fighting Nigeria were not up to a local government in the country.
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, while receiving the governors, said that the perpetrators of the recent killings took them by surprise.
Lalong likened the killers to a thief who, if he said planned to steal, will come at night and take his victims by surprise.
He said, “In Plateau State in the last three years, my slogan has always been restoration of normalcy. We achieved this within three years and celebrated it. But unfortunately, this one (recent attack) happened. If you ask an average Plateau man, ‘how?’ he will tell you, ‘we don’t know’. And so, we don’t know why this is coming back again.
“To me as a governor, we were taken by surprise in Plateau State because when the devil plans his action, he will want to take people by surprise.”
Those who were in the entourage were governors Yari; Okorocha; Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta); Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar (Bauchi); Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa State); Samuel Ortom (Benue); and Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto).
The deputy governors of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, and his counterparts in Oyo, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, and Kaduna states were also in attendance.
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Source: Punch
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