What Buhari, Governors, Service Chiefs Discussed At Expanded Security Meeting

Insecurity, issues of state police, $1 billion Excess Crude Account among others were top at the discussion table when President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday held expanded security meeting with state governors and Security heads at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Arising from the meeting which was exclusively reported by BIGPEN Online on Thursday, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi who said the meeting was at the instance of the governors of the 36 states collectively, noted top priority of the meeting was state of insecurity in the country.

He said that the meeting discussed issues of state police, saying while some governors were advocating for State police because of the peculiar security challenges facing their states others didn’t deem it necessary because of the financial implications.

He said that the NGF will take a holistic view of the issue and come out with a position on it.

He also stated that the $1 billion approved from the Excess Crude Account to fight insecurity had been disbursed among the security agencies, though he said it was not enough to tackle the security challenges.

“We had a very fruitful meeting with Mr. President. Of course, he was not oblivious of the challenges, he gets security reports on a daily basis, he understands what the issues are. “But we felt as chief security officers in our respective states, it is also important for us to at least keep Mr. President abreast of the enormity of the challenges we are facing and also highlight the concerns of our citizens across the board about rural banditry, farmers/herders clashes, kidnapping, militancy in the Delta, insurgency and cultism.

“So we discussed extensively all of these issues and looked at the various ways that we felt as governors we could assist Mr. President as the Commander-in-Chief to curb these issues. Of course, we were able to, in the first instance, look at the nexus between our economic challenges and the security challenges as well and the importance of tackling the causes of crime not just crime on its own”.

The meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari was attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and State Governors.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha; Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, also attended the meeting.

The governors in attendance at the meeting were those of Adamawa, Borno, Taraba, Kebbi, Delta, Sokoto, Imo, Ebonyi, Kogi, Yobe, Gombe, Ekiti, Lagos, Jigawa, Bauchi, Kano and Niger states.

Others included those of Anambra, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, Osun, Rivers, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Zamfara, Kwara, Ondo, Bayelsa and Enugu states.