Governors, IGP hold ‘secret’ talks over rising insecurity

Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi and his Kebbi State counterpart, Abubakar Bagudu, on Thursday, met the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to seek ways of partnering to tackle the security challenges confronting the country.

Fayemi is the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) while Bagudu chairs the Progressive Governors’ Forum.

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At the meeting, the IGP said the police, with the support of the governors, would “surmount the insurmountable”.

The state chief executives said they were at the Force Headquarters to congratulate the IGP on his appointment and commiserate with him over attacks on police formations and loss of police personnel.

The duo said the visit was also aimed at seeking ways of partnering the police high command to tackle the raging insecurity across the country.

“It’s a routine visit, we haven’t had the opportunity to see the new acting IGP, since he took over.

“So, apart from coming to congratulate him, we are also here to extend our own condolences over the loss of personnel in this unfortunate development across the length and breadth of the country.

“These are people who have put their lives on the line so that the rest of us can be secure and safe.

“So, we are here as governors, both chair of governors’ forum and my colleague chair of progressive governors to express our condolences to the IG and exchange ideas with him on how to stem the tide of insecurity in our country”, Fayemi said.

He said the governors had provided support and would continue to support the police in terms of funding, provision of equipment in a symbiotic arrangement.

‘Police need help’

In his remarks, Governor Bagudu said the police needed the support of the citizenry to succeed.

“We need to appreciate our security agents because they are doing a wonderful job.

“They are all over the town, working hard to keep us safe, under different conditions and logistics challenges and sometimes, behavioural because a lot of us expect them to do magic.

“We need to support them, we need to appreciate their needs. So my message is to appreciate what our security agencies are doing.

“Also, all of us as citizens ask ourselves, ‘how can I help? How can I support them?’ I believe with information, sometimes, logistic issues, we can all help”, he said.