From Gyang Bere, Jos
Former Commander at War in Liberia and retired Major Sam Nanpkak Abashe has joint the governorship race in Plateau State under the banner of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to fix insecurity in the state that has perished dozens of innocent lives.
He noted that government is saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and properties, and said citizens has a greater role of providing early warning signs for swift response by the security agencies.
Abashe disclosed this yesterday during a media interaction with Journalists in Jos and said once security of lives and property is guaranteed, forieign investors and tourists will come to Plateau to boost the local economy.
He explained that with the favourable whether in Plateau, it is possible to have a railway that will run on daily basis between Jos and Abuja which will boost our tourism and create employment opportunities.
Abashe who hails from Langtang in Plateau South dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and joint APGA due to the political ideology of providing infrastructural development, basic needs of citizens and most importantly providing security of lives and properties.
He said the party will not respect the zoning arrengement in the state because it believes in credibility and that APGA was not a party to the gentleman agreement of rotating the governorship seat in the state.
“I found out that APGA is a party that is based on ideology unlike other parties. Today, this is where I belong, I have moved from the PDP to APGA and I am coming out again seeking for the position of the Governor of Plateau State under APGA.
“There are parties that have zoning arrangements and i will advised they stick to their gentleman agreement. I am in a party that works purely with credibility of a candidate and that is where my aspiration and possibly my candidature is.
“Before coming to APGA, i realized that there is a lot of work to be done and is about credibility not party issues, if there is a credible candidate behind a party it makes it popular.
“I have moved alongside my structure from PDP across the 17 Local Government Areas of Plateau and we have APGA across the Council areas.”
He stressed that if giving the Mandate to serve the State, he would ensure that effective utilization of early warning signals and response team are put in place as well as ensure that various reports of panel of enquiry into the insecurities bedeviling the state will be made public and the recommendations implemented.
“My areas of priority is going to be security, education, job creation to tackle unemployment and the healthcare service delivery. What is contributing to insecurity is lack of jobs and the insecurity we are talking about has ripple effect on our educational system. When you don’t have a good quality public education, people comes out half-baked and no jobs.
“So priority will be to create jobs opportunities, open the right Institutions vocational training Centres to build our young people.
” All these are achievable when you have effective tax mechanism that give confidence to citizens of the State to pay tax, knowing fully well that it will still come back to them. Citizens should just be sincere in paying their tax and so many things will be made available for their benefit and for the development of the State.” He stated.