Posted by By Kenneth Ehigiator on
Chris Ngige of Anambra State said yesterday that he was in total support of the publication of names found on the registers recovered by the police at Okija shrine.
LAGOS - GOVERNOR Chris Ngige of Anambra State said yesterday that he was in total support of the publication of names found on the registers recovered by the police at Okija shrine.
The governor told reporters at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, that there was nothing unusual about the shrine. He said people did not believe him when he testified before the Senate to say that he was taken to the shrine by force, adding that the discovery of the shrine represented triumph over evil.
His words: 'I support a hundred per cent that the names found on the registers be published. There is nothing strange about Okija; there is nothing wonderful or alarming about it. I had last year, when I testified at the Senate, said I was taken there by force, it didn't make any sense to people, but I knew what I said." He said the discovery of the shrine was a manifestation of the Biblical injunction that weapons fashioned against some people would always be destroyed.
On the litigation by the 19 northern and two South-West states for the abrogation of the Onshore/Offshore Act, Ngige said the issue would be top on the agenda at the forthcoming Governors' Forum. The suit challenging the Act, he said, was unnecessary because, as he put it, it tended to severe the brotherly relationship that exists among Nigerians. 'We are going to address the issue at the next Governors' Forum. Some of us have tabled it for discussion because we are all brothers and we should be our brothers' keepers. So, there is no need for that suit. We will discuss the issue one-on-one to find out why the suit was filed," he said.
He said police withdrawal of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) would have no negative effects on security in the state, stressing that Anambra State today remained one of the safest states in the country. He said the state government had been on top crime prevention and control, which only recently crystallised in its donation of logistics support to the police. According to him, the state government donated communication gadgets worth N20 million to the police to enable it check crimes in Anambra.