The 36 state governors says they are prepared to dedicate their states’ portions of the Excess Crude Account, the Natural Resource Development Fund and the Economic Stabilization Fund to providing necessary equipment for the military and other security agencies.
Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, told reporters in Abuja Thursday that this was to quickly address the impunity associated with all of the crimes and criminalities highlighted at the forum’s meeting held Wednesday night.
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He said the forum condemned attempts to profile ethnic groups on account of a particular crime and spoke against the proliferation of fake news and the abuse of social media.
“Nigerian governors are very clear that crime and criminality should be comprehensively prosecuted wherever they may occur without ethnic, religious or any other coloration.
“Governors are totally opposed to ethnic profiling of crime. Knowing what has transpired in other parts of the world, whether we are talking of the way youths were profiles in Germany leading to the world war, or we’re talking of the way Tutsis were profiled leading to the genocide experienced in Rwanda, we do not believe that crimes are associated with particular ethnic group.
“And to that extent, we unreservedly condemn any attempt to profile any ethnic group on account of a particular crime,” Fayemi said.
judicial system
He said the NFG also expressed interest in strengthening the judicial system to accelerate access to justice for victims of crimes and criminalities.
He said the forum expressed worry over border management in the country as porosity of our borders was responsible for the proliferation of light weapons, leading to disagreement between farmers and herders in the violence witnessed as “most of the people are seen to be carrying AK-47 arms.”
“We’ve received a number of calls from of our colleagues that these crimes are associated with the porous borders in the country, and we are concerned of the importance of strengthening the ECOWAS trans-human border protocol in order to address the movement of cattle across borders.”
He said the governors urged synergy among main stream security agencies and states’ security institutions or local security arrangement “that has emanated for response to the situations we find ourselves in, like the vigilante groups, Civilian JTF, Amotekun.”
He said the forum agreed to support a modern approach to livestock management, describing the current method of cattle grazing as no longer sustainable.
The NGF, he added, underscored the need to strengthen the National Livestock Transformation Plan.
Fayemi said the forum urged review the nation’s forestry management and environmental laws as the country’s forests had become “the den of these criminals and bandits”.
