Main opposition Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Governors forum has laments the raising insecurity in the nation and has called for action. The governors insisted that the present police structure in the country must be decentralised to give way for the state police to be in place. The PDP state leaders made their position known today in Jos, the capital of Plateau sate when they paid a courtesy call to their colleague, the Plateau state governor, Mutfuwang Caleb.
They were on the state visit to condole with the governor after the state has witnessed a series of attacks from terrorist herdsmen in recent time, where communities were raided and scores of villagers lost their lives and properties.
Shortly after the meeting, the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Muhammed, spoke on their behalf, saying, “We are just being very honest with ourselves. We are not just indicting unreasonably the Nigerian police or the security agents as they are doing their best, but certainly, the ratio between citizens to policing is very low and the states know the peculiarities of their states and local governments and their towns and villages and even the crisis of community crisis and others.
“So we have always been advocating. There is no dissent between the governors and the National level but we need to get some decentralisation of the security apparatus so that we can enhance good governance by having good state police.”
Mohammed further opined that with state police in place, it will give an opportunity to engage the structure of the security agencies to train the youth ensuring that rules of engagements are kept sacred, citing that the northern governors will borrow leave from the Amotekun of the southwest region as pilot policy.
The Bauchi state Governor while explaining said, “We will work in tandem with established practice, and globally rather than just be forced to be doing vigilante. Even on the vigilante, we’re doing our best to make sure we involve the security agencies, but we are still being accused. We are copying from Omotekun.
“We have seen what happened in Zamfara, in Katsina and other places. This is good to go because Nigerians want to sleep with their two eyes closed and the PDP, as a party, has always ensured good governance as our governor of Plateau said.
“We have no option other than to show the difference between beans and rice. That’s what we are trying to do to – make sure we bring projects and programmes, good governance with the little resources we have, even though we may not get special intervention, but we are doing best with the least that we have” he said.
The PDP Governors were in Plateau state to commensurate with one of them and sympathise with governor Mutfwang following the crises that rocked the state despite the court battle that the governor had to face.
According to Governor Mohammed, “Nigerians want to sleep with their eyes closed and go about their normal duties peacefully, that is why we’re calling on the Federal Government to up its game by considering the establishment of State Police in the country.
He added that the PDP governors would continue to stand by him to enable him overcome the hurdle of insecurity that is threatening his state.
“And so we’re donating the sum of N100 million in support of the victims of these unfortunate incidents, knowing that you are an accommodating governor who values inclusiveness with the understanding that Plateau State is home to all,” the chairman added.
In his thank you message, Governor Mutfwang thanked the PDP Governors for the visit and their kind gesture which he said the people of Plateau State would remain grateful.
He lamented that his state people of the state had suffered so much of insecurity in the hand of herdsmen terrorists, though expressed the optimism of his
administration to continue to do its best to address the challenge, however, good governance in the interest of the people who voted him into power is what will bring succour to his people.
Mutfwang said, “Like Governor Bala Muhammed said, you had a situation, particularly in the last administration where you are tempted to think that even the perpetrators of the insecurity were being supervised by the state and this has made them become emboldened to continue to unleash terror on innocent lives but by the grace of God. We are not deterred.
“We are also trying to ensure that we build inter and intra-community harmony. One thing I have said consistently since becoming governor is that nobody can do it alone. We need unity across the divides of faith, across the divides of ethnicity. If we don’t achieve it, it’s going to be difficult for the country to be secure. So I’ve always advocated that we must do our best to ensure that we rebuild trust amongst our people.
He added that “Because it is a breakdown of trust that has allowed a lot of these criminals to find hiding places amongst us. And once we perceive this as criminality and are all treated as such, I believe that we’ll see some light at the end of the tunnel. But in a situation where no one has ever been arrested and prosecuted, no one has ever gone to jail for these wanton killings. I think it speaks volumes. It only encourages and emboldens criminals to continue on this trajectory,”
