Governors under the aegis of Nigerian Governors Forum, have offered to cede portions of the Excess Crude Account and other funds to support the purchase of additional hardware for security forces to combat insecurity.
Chairman of the NGF and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, said this while briefing the media, on the outcome of an emergency meeting of the forum, at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
The meeting which started at about 9.00pm on Wednesday, lasted till the early hours of Thursday.
Fayemi said, “On our part, we are prepared to support the dedication of portions of the Excess Crude Account, the Natural Resource Development Fund, and the Economic Stabilization Fund to providing the necessary equipment for the military and other security institutions to address immediately the impunity associated with all of the crimes and criminality that we have highlighted in this briefing.
“In this wise, we have also expressed our interest in strengthening our judicial system so that they can accelerate access to justice for victims of crime and criminality in the country.”
He, also noted that he and his colleagues, reviewed the need to strengthen the National Livestock Transformation Plan because it was their collective view that the traditional approach to grazing was no longer sustainable and that the modern approach to livestock management needs to be put in place.
The NGF chairman said, “Governors feel strongly that the strengthening of the National Livestock Transformation Plan would be a good place to start this comprehensive revisiting of the livestock management arrangement.
“Governors are irrevocably committed to the protection of lives and property in our states and we are full of sympathy with those who have lost lives and property.
“The governors’ forum has gone ahead to provide some financial support to victims of the conflicts experienced in Oyo and Ogun states where our delegation visited over the last week.
“Nigerian governors also are very clear that crime and criminality should be comprehensively prosecuted wherever they may occur without ethnic, religious or any other coloration.“
Fayemi reiterated the NGF’s opposition to ethnic profiling of crime. This, he said, was with the full knowledge of what has transpired in other parts of the world which led to ethnic cleansing and wars in Europe and even on the African continent with the Rwandan genocide being the latest example.
By John Alechenu,
The Punch