31st December, 2020
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
Edo chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has asked Governor Godwin Obaseki to be more proactive in tackling the challenges of insecurity bedeviling the state.
This is even as it advised the governor to involve stakeholders in the various communities and also provide adequate funding for security agencies, to enable residents of the state to sleep with their eyes closed.
The Chairman, Caretaker Committee of APC in Edo, Mr. David Imuse, stated this on Thursday in Benin in a statement signed by the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party, Victor Ofure Osehobo.
Imuse described recent claims by the state chairman of the PDP, Mr. Tony Aziegbemi, that governor Obaseki has put in place a security plan that is at the implementation stage to guarantee a peaceful Christmas and New Year celebrations as flawed, because Edo people want an all year round security rather than such unrealistic ad hoc plans.
He said it was a similar ad hoc plan by the same Governor that gave birth to the so called but now moribund, ‘New Security Architecture’, which in December 2018 gulped over N2billion of Edo tax payers monies and another N200million from corporate citizens.
Imuse noted that it is wrong for the PDP chairman to expect governor Obaseki to be sleeping while Edo people are having sleepless nights daily because of the criminal siege on the state.
He said: “The APC therefore charges the Governor to be more proactive by involving critical stakeholders in our communities and providing adequate funding of security services, to make Edolites sleep with their two eyes closed once again”.
“The APC believes that the police in Edo state need adequate materials and institutional support and that the state government has the means and can afford it.
“The Security Trust Fund of the state must now be utilized as a special purpose vehicle to mobilize funding for the security agencies on a sustainable basis rather than the present ad hoc basis.
“As for the community policing programme involving neighborhood Watch and vigilante groups which have been established and are successfully operating in other parts of the country, all Edo state needs is to replicate same for her rural and urban areas.
“The PDP chairman should tell the Governor too, that Edo traditional rulers, village heads, school authorities and religious organizations are critical stakeholders, and must be part of the big picture to find a pragmatic and lasting solution to the killings, kidnappings and other violent crimes that is ravaging our state.”