Bauchi gov gets tough on LG chairmen, says connivance with bandits will be punished

Chairmen of the 20 local government councils in Bauchi State have been warned that any one of them or their officials caught conniving with bandits to shortchange the people of the state will be punished in accordance with the relevant laws of the country.

The warning was handed down by Governor Bala Mohammed who got tough on the council chairmen on Monday considering the deteriorating state of insecurity in their domains in recent times which have led to the loss of lives and properties of citizens.

Bala Mohammed who gave the stern warning this while addressing the chairmen and other top government functionaries as well as heads of security agencies shortly before he had a closed-door meeting with them at the new banquet hall government house, said that the state in recent times has been experiencing a surge in the activities of miscreants and bandits in some of the local government areas of the state, that has led to abductions and loss of lives and properties.

He further said that the insecurity situation in the state was becoming very worrisome as the majority of the population of the state live in the rural areas, pointing out that if insecurity continues to thrive in the rural areas, it will definitely pose a threat to the state.

The governor said that “the chairmen of the local governments are the chief executives of their respective local governments. This insecurity, it would appear, we have told them to be holding weekly meetings with their security agencies in their local governments, but they are not doing that and if they are not doing that it has not been brought to my knowledge. I said that when I met with you, that I have been meeting with security agencies in the security council, you should also do that.”

He stressed that “we have been lending you support to run your security challenges, you are supposed to work with the security heads, Emirs, village heads, the vigilantes and the security agencies in your local governments, but you are not doing that. It is very unfortunate that the situation is deteriorating and everybody is looking up to the governor or the federal government.”

According to him, “the community engagement is the most important thing in this, most especially when there is a lot of incidence of connivance between local government officials, even state ministry officials and traditional institutions with the bandits to shortchange our people at the local level, this is unacceptable.”

“We will no longer tolerate this because there is nothing that is happening that we are not getting a report from the DSS. It is either you are nonchalant or sometimes forestry officers and those ministries responsible for settlements for forest reserves, they connive. I am letting you know that today, whoever connive and shortchange, will face the music. We are not going to allow this thing to continue,” Bala Mohammed warned.

The governor opined that “this insecurity is not happening in the vacuum, somebody will not just come from somewhere to insecure us. We have been adjourned as the secured state, but this is just a gimmick, we will no longer tolerate this.”

“So, we are going to discuss on all these issues such as land speculations in the areas where our forest reserves are being destroyed, bandits come and take territorial possession, after being provided the right of way by you because the local government authorities are under you,” the governor said.

He also called on the citizenry to notify concerned authorities of any movement that is strange in their midst because according to him, “security is not the business of a segment alone, it is everyone’s business. We must therefore assist Security operatives by volunteering useful information about criminals.”

The governor then assured that his administration will not relent in providing adequate security measures across the state because that is the primary responsibility of any government before talking about the construction of facilities.

 

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