We’ll stamp out insecurity in Kogi – Bello

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, on Tuesday said his government was intensifying efforts at ensuring that insecurity becomes a thing of the past in the State.

He said government was overhauling its security apparatus to make the state hostile to criminals who are bent on reversing the gains of the administration in the security sector.

“We are regaining our security apparatus and securing gadgets that will ensure criminals have no hiding place in Kogi State. Security agents will be highly empowered and motivated to combat crime in our dear state.

“But beyond the arms and ammunitions, we are looking at combating the use of hard drugs in our societies. Drug is the root of crime. Criminals operate under the influence of hard drugs and we are making significant progress in destroying the roots of hard drugs in the state.

“Also, we are almost rounding up the training of over 2500 youth across the state. They are undergoing skills acquisition to empower them to be job creators. We do not want our youth to be idle because an idle hand is the devil’s workshop.

“Government is working hard to take care of the poverty angle of criminality. Kogi has become a honey pot for multimillionaire investments and we do not want crime to scuttle our drive to industrial revolution. The Kampe Omi Dam Project for which the state has signed a Memorandum of Understanding is also capable of creating over 200,000 jobs directly and indirectly through irrigation farming and value chain”.

Speaking on the ongoing staff verification exercise, the governor said his administration decided to reposition the civil service and make it a functional engine for the realisation of the goals of the New Direction Agenda.

“The civil service was turned into a cesspit of corruption and that is unacceptable to our ideology of repositioning the civil service to make it more efficient and effective. A lot of discoveries have been made and we now have a clear roadmap to rebound our civil service. Allegations of arrests of civil servants are unfounded. What the administration is doing is to help the system.

“We are at the last lap of the exercise where workers are given the opportunity to appeal decisions against them by the earlier Committee. Government will not sack any genuine worker”.

The Governor assured the people of the state of the readiness of his administration to make the state the centre of industrial development in Nigeria, expressing optimism that the Ajaokuta Steel Company will be revived soon to path-find the nation’s industrial revolution.