The Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the All Progressive Congress, APC in Edo state, Col David Imuse Rtd, has described recent claims by Dr Tony Aziegbemi, the State Chairman of the PDP, that Governor Godwin Obaseki is suffering from insomnia over how to secure the lives and properties of Edo people as a huge slap on the sensibilities of Edo people.
The APC chairman said it is wrong for the PDP chairman to expect the Governor Obaseki to be sleeping while Edo people are daily having sleepless nights because of the criminal siege on the state.
He said the PDP should tell the governor that the huge security vote of over N700million he collects monthly from Edo State coffers, is solely for funding security agencies in the state, and that his tenacious hold on the monies by refusing to deploy it to fund security agencies is what is fuelling insecurity in the state.
“The PDP Chairman’s claim that the Governor has put in place a security plan that is at the implementation stage to guarantee a peaceful Christmas and New Year celebrations is flawed, because Edo people want an all year round security rather than such unrealistic ad hoc plans”.
He said it was a similar ad hoc plan by the same Governor that gave birth to the socalled but now moribund, ‘New Security Architecture’, which in December 2018 gulped over N2billion of Edo tax payers monies and another N200million from corporate citizens.
“The PDP should have known like the Governor that the potentials of Edo state economically, are huge, but their handling of the current security situation in the state has made the realization of these potentials unrealistic and unattainable”.
“The APC therefore charges the Governor to be more proactive by involving critical stakeholders in our communities and providing adequate funding of security services, to make Edolites sleep with their two eyes closed once again”.
Col Imuse said, “The APC believes that the Police in Edo State need adequate materials and institutional support and that the State government has the means and can afford it. Also the Security Trust Fund of the state must now be utilized as a special purpose vehicle to mobilize funding for the security agencies on a sustainable basis rather than the present ad hoc basis.
“As for the Community Policing Programme involving Neighborhood Watch and Vigilante groups which have been established and are successfully operating in other parts of the country, all Edo state needs is to replicate same for her Rural and Urban areas”.
The APC chairman said, “The PDP chairman should tell the Governor too, that Edo traditional rulers, village heads, school authorities and religious organizations are critical stakeholders, and must be part of the big picture to find a pragmatic and lasting solution to the Killings, Kidnappings and other violent crimes that is ravaging our state”.
Signed:
Victor Ofure Osehobo
Assistant Publicity Secretary
Edo APC
31st December 2020.