Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
The Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, says that the state government will build a well-equipped police station at Iwaraja, a boundary town between Ekiti and Osun states, to monitor and secure the state border.
The Governor said a police station at the spot will arrest the rising tide of transborder crimes like kidnappings and killings being perpetrated around Efon Alaaye Ekiti and Iwaraja.
Following the murder of some residents by suspected herders at Iyemero earlier in the year, Fayemi had ordered the immediate construction of a police post at Ekiti-Kwara border to secure the porous section of the state.
Many commuters had been kidnapped, and others killed, as a result of the persistent criminal activities of suspected gunmen along Aramoko-Erio-Efon-Iwaraja, making the portion dreadful to travelers.
Speaking in Ado-Ekiti on Monday evening while appearing on the monthly programme tagged “Meet Your Governor,” aired by Ekiti based media, Fayemi said the Ekiti State Security Trust had been signed into law, saying that it would help in fortifying the security architecture of the state when it commences operation.
Fayemi stated that the federal police structure in operation is grossly inadequate to secure the country, harping on the need to create State Police forces which understand local terrains and that will facilitie better security cover for the over 170 million Nigerian citizens.
The Governor said he has been midwifing a series of meetings across the country as the Chairman of the Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum, pushing for a joint security network that will stamp out criminals in South West Nigeria.
“The governors, traditional rulers and other stakeholders are meeting across the southwest and we are taking steps to ensure that our people are safe to do their businesses without fear of being killed or kidnapped,” Fayemi stated.
“In Ekiti, we are going to build a modern police station between Efon and Iwaraja to patrol the section where we have had reported cases of kidnappings and other crimes.
“Very soon, our people will be seeing leopard branded patrol vehicles of the Operation Rapid Response Squad (RRS). This is a modern security outfit that will be operating in Ekiti and other southwest states. They are to work hand-in-hand with each other to ward off any form of security threat.
“This issue of security is more important to me than any other issue or policy of government, because if this place is safe, investors will surely come in and do businesses with us,” Fayemi said.
Speaking on other matters, Fayemi assured workers of the State Ministry of Environment employed as ‘street sweepers’, whose salaries were slashed from N10,000 to N5,000, that their issues would be addressed soon.
“I have instructed their coordinators to brief us about the situation to find a way for the implementation of the old salary,” he said. “They will soon see my positive actions in this regard soon.”
On the issue of salary, Fayemi assured the workers of regular payment of salaries and pensions, with a promise that the era when payment of civil servants’ benefits were considered a favour rather than a right was over.
“Apart from regular payment of their benefits, we are also assuring then that all the backlog of salaries and pension will be paid.
“They shouldn’t worry about how the state will do it; we shall fulfill our promises to pay all outstanding allowances, because that was our bond with the workers,” Fayemi stated.