Ignore Nnamdi Kanu’s Security Outfit — South-East Governors

THE Chairman of South-East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi, weekend called on the people of the region to ignore the so-called security outfit set up by the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Umahi who described the outfit as laughable stressed that the Governors of the region have been doing their best to ensure the protection of lives and properties of citizens within the South-East zone.

The Governor stated this while briefing Newsmen on the recent development across the country.

He warned youths to avoid being used as instruments of destruction even as he emphasized that the South-East Governors would never allow the ugly incident that occurred during the #Endsars Protests to repeat itself.

“Our region remains the safest and nobody can controvert this. And so, our brother said he has formed a security outfit for the southeast. It is very laughable and should be totally ignored. I commend very highly the Southeast Governors.

“It is only the Southeast that the leaders are being castigated openly. It is the duty of the Governors to protect the lives of the citizens and also the citizens of other regions living in their states that are not from Southeast.

“I want them to ignore the side distractions. They are doing a lot in education of our people, payment of salaries, infrastructure development and most especially the security of our people. No Governor will come open to tell you A to z what he is doing about security.

“But I want it to be debated whether Southeast is not the safest in the country. We need to warn that our youths should desist from being engaged for the destruction of lives and property.

“During the #endSARS, this happened in all the state of the Southeast. The Governors of Southeast will no longer tolerate that. We continue to keep our eyes on the ball to ensure that anybody living under our care are protected.”

Umahi noted that it was not necessary for Nigerians to call for the sack of the service Chief but rather, they should be supported and aided with information so that they can succeed.

“Whether we like it or not, we are having global challenges and Nigeria is not an exception. So, we thank God for the courage, the ability, and the health God gave our President to steer the ship of our nation in a very challenging time like this.

“We must accept that we need, as a people to think about the patriotism of our people to nation-building. It is very important. No one man can build a nation.

“It is the collective responsibility of everything citizen of this country to, first of all, to be patriotic and see that there is no any other nation we have than the nation Nigeria. It is not the job of the President, Governors or other leaders alone.

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“I think God gave Mr president birthday present by the safe recovery of the kankara school children, that were abducted. The devil is a liar as this happened when he took off to rest in his home state. But I thank God that within the period of his rest, God recovered those students safely, back to the state and the parents.

“I commend Mr President very highly. I think your style is not a style of making noise which is what the people expect to see, but Mr president, you are a very silent achiever.

“We thanked God for these works of God and the birthday gift that your children were safely returned and to shame to your detractors, who thought this is another cheap political point to score. Let me also commend my brother, the Governor of Kastina state for your doggedness and commitment.

“The press wanted you to be talking and talking but you were working tirelessly with Mr President and the security agencies. I commend you very highly and say, congratulations to you. Our prayer is that it will never happen again to Katsina and to any other part of this country.

“We will as a State continue to commend the Chief of Army Staff, the Inspector General of Police, Director General of SSS and NSA to Mr President. These people have been working.

“Nigerians should appreciate the time we are passing through now, instead of condemning them, we should commend them. Security matter is the job of everybody. We need to give information to security agencies.

“People say we need to change security chiefs, are we bringing spirit? These security chiefs have done very well. They need information, they need our support and prayers. But what baffles me is that when what happens in another country happens in Nigeria, we intend to react as if we are in isolation in a global village of the world.

“Patriotism is very important in our nation-building. I think we turn our mind from saying sack security chiefs or wanting President to discuss security issues in the public. We should rather support them, give information to them and give constructive advice to Mr president because he does not know it all.

“It is only God that knows it all.” On the issue of COVID-19, Governor Umahi reduced the time for Church services to two hours and called on all and sundry to adhere strictly to all COVID-19 protocols in the State.

“It is quite disturbing that the second wave of COVID-19  has started in Nigeria, though we have not started experiencing it much in Southeast the Governors of the region have met on strategies as they did before on how to curtail the spread of the disease in our region.

“I want to let our people know that we must go back to observe all the protocols of COVID-19 as enunciated by the Presidential taskforce and also by the taskforce we have set up in our respective states.

“Ebonyi State in particular, I am directing that church services should not last more than two hours. I am directing that we should step up our testing.

“Before the end of January, we must have accomplished the Presidential taskforce target of 450 people tested in each 14 LGAs. I have suspended large gathering of people in Ebonyi State. We have returned that wearing of nose mask is very compulsory in all public places in our homes. And in this Christmas, I am appealing that we should curtail movements.

“The usual night of praise will not hold. We will push it to January to start the year with, and we have every reason to thank God. The usual end of the year party is now disaggregated so that smaller crowd will be controlled.”

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