From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The governor of Abia, Okezie Ikpeazu has assured that the state is working closely with sister states in South East to address the issue of insecurity in the region.
He stated it was because of this that the Ebubeagu Security outfit was established, stressing that it would help address the security challenges faced in the region.
“The idea behind the Ebubeagu Security outfit is to collaborate and maximize the comparative advantage in each state of the region, enable the region procure modern technology to facilitate monitoring of movement of persons and to effectively tackle the challenges headlong.”
The governor, who stated this in a zoom meeting organized by Abia Media Forum, explained that the launch of the new security outfit couldn’t have come at a better time and that the State already had in place the Homeland Security Unit with a mandate to protect lives and property of people of the State.
While stating that the state was deepening the Ebubeagu security outfit by recruiting at the ward and community levels citizens who would help in the area of information and intelligence gathering at the grassroots level, the governor said the State would soon organize a stakeholders forum which will have in attendance all stakeholders in the security sector.
“We are bringing together stakeholders in the security sector to help us evaluate the template we have; this will enable us tackle the security challenges we are faced with. Our target is to create a security architecture robust enough to secure our state.”
On the issue of criminal herdsmen in the State, the Governor said his administration took proactive measure by enacting a bill through the State Assembly to ban open grazing which has helped the state in addressing the issue of herders and farmers clashes in the State.
“We have a law on open grazing. Aside Benue State, Abia was the first to pass the Anti-Open Grazing law in the country. We are tackling criminal herdsmen from other parts of the country and sub-region. We are enforcing the law”, the governor assured.
On the Isiala Ngwa Dry Sea Port, Ikpeazu has said his administration was going ahead with the project as it will facilitate the ease of doing business in Aba and the state at large.
Ikpeazu disclosed that Abia will not embark on building an airport just to impress people simply because other States in the region have done so, stressing that “we are looking at viability here, economy is key.
“Only about 5 percent of our population has interest in flying while the other 95 percent use road to move their goods and services.We must look at the needs of our people before embarking on any project. Resources of the state must be properly channeled to address fundamental needs of the people”, he said.