THE Kogi State government has sought the collaboration of traditional institutions in the state in its quest to fight crimes and make the state free of criminals.
Apart from this, government also said it would renovate/rehabilitate the palaces of the five first class monarchs in the state to make them compete with others in the country.
The special adviser to the governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Ohere, said this at the maiden meeting of the state council of chiefs in 2017 held at the council chambers in Lokoja, the state capital.
He said the traditional rulers were already cooperating with government in order to rid the state of crminal activities like kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism and other vices.
According to him, the enormous resources that the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, was committing to fighting crime should be complemented with human resources to make the state crime free.
He said, “The traditional rulers have been doing a lot in terms of security, they are the custodians of the grassroots, they know the nooks and crannies of their domains we can only keep urging them to do more.
“The state is connected to about nine other states and this has made crime to increase, we can only pray for more wisdom and wherewithal for the governor to continue to keep the state safe, he is doing his best and that was why the police authorities gave him an award on security”.
The governor’s aide, however, lauded the traditional rulers for their efforts at maintaining peace in their domains, noting that the situation would bring about further development across the state.
Ohere stated that the present administration in the state was more concerned about the welfare of the traditional rulers, saying what Bello’s government met on ground was not good for the royal fathers.
He said government had embarked on peer review of traditional institutions and palaces round the state with a view to upgrading them to meet standard.
According to him, “It is like we don’t have a befitting palace for any of the traditional rulers in the state, assuming the resources permit the governor what he wants to do is to make sure he builds a befitting palace for each of the rulers but because of the lean resources available he has chosen to make sure we do this in phases.
“We will first start from the palaces of his royal majesties starting from the president of the council, the Atta Igala, Dr Michael Idakwo. We will upgrade the facilities, that is the eye of the state in terms of traditional institution, we want to make it a model for all palaces across the state. Then, we will move to the palace of the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland.
“We have carried out peer review and referencing with other traditional rulers’ palaces outside the state, so the template is there, the ministry of works has already conducted their due diligence and they have come out with a good model on how the palace should look like, before the third quarter of this year, work will start on these palaces,” he concluded.
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