INSECURITY, KILLINGS: N’East governors meet

Governors of the six North-East states  gathered on Friday in Gombe for an inaugural consultative meeting to check the lingering insecurity and other challenges in the sub-region.

Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting, the host governor, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, said its aim was to close ranks and chart a way forward for the North-east.

He said the meeting would henceforth be held every quarter to enable them interface and dialogue on ways to meet the aspirations and objectives of people of the sub-region.

“The prevailing security situation poses an existential threat to our sub-region, and therefore, necessitates the need for us to convene this gathering in order to come up with a united front that can address our collective challenges as a sub-region.

“The resultant effects of poverty, diseases, hunger and agony which originated from the Boko Haram insurgency have led to the current state of dilapidation in the quality of life of our people.

“As leaders, we have to take on these challenges with all sense of responsibility, more so because the things that unite us are far more than the ones that divide us. We are one people bound by common geography, history and destiny,” he said.

Governor Yahaya said they had asked the attorneys general of the respective states to meet with security agencies and work out an approach to enhance regional security within the ambit of the law.

He further said they would create, implement and enforce a common regional framework for coordinating donor agencies for humanitarian interventions across the sub-region to stop “some unscrupulous elements and entities that are seeking to commercialize the suffering of our people.”

According to him, the discovery of hydro-carbon in the region would create job opportunities for the people.

He called for coordination to avoid the experience in the Niger Delta.

The governor added that the forum had agreed to establish a technical working committee to implement all the actions agreed upon by the governors.

Other governors at the meeting were; Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa; Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of Bauchi; Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno; Mai Mala Buni of Yobe and Deputy Governor of Taraba, Haruna Manu, who represented Governor Darius Ishaku.