The governor made the submission while receiving members of the House Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution, which held at the Executive Chambers of the government house, on Tuesday.
Bala Mohammed also said that Bauchi State which is the third biggest state in the Northern region in terms of landmass and population has been short-changed when local government areas were created in the past.
He pointed out that there is an influx of people into the state, arising from insecurity in the region, which according to him, has triggered a population increase of 10 million people, thereby overstretching the facilities in the state.
The governor said that “In Bauchi State, we have the highest number of out of school children, not because we are not enrolling our children, but because people are coming into the state from other places and because of the homogeneity and commonality of our tradition and culture.”
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“We do not put people in IDP camps, we accommodate them. There is what we call integration of IDPs and so there is no difference between somebody coming from Yobe and Borno. When they come, they will settle down and definitely use the hospitals, the schools and our resources,” he stressed.
He added that “So we are urging you to please look at the agitations for the creation of Katagum State because this will bring development close to the people. You have seen what happened to Gombe and Jigawa State.”
Doing this according to him, “is their inalienable right, we are not going to divided. Most of the buildings and infrastructures in Bauchi state is owned by the people of Gombe and Katagum and they are still there. We are interwoven, but we are only saying that as a Nigerian nation we need that”
The governor further said that “The state is also agitating for state police not because it wants to compete with the federal government, but because of the power of coercion, the security is under the exclusive list, we are just going to draw power from that power, so that the rules of engagement, the templates will be provided by the Police, Nigeria Army and all the federal agencies, so that we can complement the effort of the Nigerian Police to provide security. We are already providing security in the state as governors.”
“Some of the issues around security vote is not that we are eating money from security vote. We give logistic to the police, if we don’t give logistics to the police, they cannot operate.The federal government is not giving them anything, we are the ones doing it,” the governor corrected the erroneous impression.
He stressed that “If we can do that, out of sheer complimentary and goodwill when the responsibility is put on us and resources freed from the federal government and given to us, definitely, we are going to do much.”
Earlier in his address, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee for review of 1999 Constitution, Bauchi zone, Dr Aminu Suleiman commended Governor Bala Mohammed over the developmental projects sited across the state, particularly road Infrastructure, saying that good governance is possible in Nigeria with Committed leaders.
He assured the governor that the committee will not interfere with the proceedings that will emanate from the public hearing on the constitutional review in the state, adding after the debate by members of the committee, they will take into cognisance of the yearnings of the people.
Reflect the agitations of the state in the constitutional review report, Bauchi gov urges Reps Committee
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