Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State says he did not know that some of his commissioners do not have police escorts to them until the Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Yakubu Lawal, was abducted by gunmen in Nasarawa Eggon LGA.
He decried the spate of kidnappings across the state, expressing his administration’s commitment to tackle the persistence of kidnappings in the Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area of the state.
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Sule who chaired the quarterly meeting of the Nasarawa Enabling Business Environment Council, at the Government House, on Tuesday, warned that his administration would take stringent actions against perpetrators of crime in the state.
The governor said, “I urge you, first and foremost, to be cautious and secondly, seek for protection also from your own end.
“I have no idea that some of our commissioners don’t have police attached to them until today. While other commissioners are having three or four policemen because of the situation they find themselves in, other commissioners don’t even want it. This is a very wrong approach. We should seek police protection. The CP is more than happy to support you.
“In a week, we now have three incidences, for that reason, we can’t fold our arms. We have to be able to take a stronger position. I urge you as members of the executive, especially top government functionaries, to do the best you can, to be more cautious. It is unfortunate that a commissioner will be driving alone in the middle of the night.”
The governor, therefore, urged political appointees and other top government functionaries, to be a little more cautious while going about their responsibilities.
He further urged top government officials in the state to ensure they have adequate security protection, adding that, the state Commissioner of Police, Adesina Soyemi, has expressed readiness to protect government officials.
Speaking on the essence of the meeting, the Governor said, since Nasarawa State has continued to attract investment, there was a need for the council to continue to take all seriousness as it affects the efficiency of attracting business into the state.
Earlier, in an opening remark, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nasarawa Investment Development Agency (NASIDA), Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the Nasarawa Enabling Business Environment Council is the apex body for discussing the bottlenecks and barriers to bringing business into the state.
Abdullahi emphasized that the council, has in the past years, ushered in new reforms in the state business environment which has put the state as a top destination for doing business in Nigeria.
