Insecurity : Ayade absent as Buhari, Governors meet in Abuja

When President Muhammadu Buhari met on Friday behind closed doors with state governors and heads of security agencies at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, only one state was not represented and that is Cross River state.

The meeting, as Guardian reports, was in connection with the prevailing security situation, among other issues besetting the country.

The parley, which began around 11.01am when the President arrived the Council Chamber venue, was also attended by some of the immediate past state governors of all the political parties.

Thirty-five state governors were at the meeting, with Benue represented by the Deputy Governor, as well as the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari. 

Governor Ayade who is currently on a trip to Norway was the only  governor absent and his deputy, Professor Ivara Esu was not in attendance.

The governors, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), also on Friday, said they had not taken a common position on the setting up of State Police in the country.

Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, made the clarification while fielding questions from State House Correspondents.

Fayemi, who was joined by six of his colleagues from the six geo-political zones, stated that while some governors were for State Police because of the peculiar security challenges facing their states, others felt it was not necessary.

He said the NGF would soon take a common position on the matter during the forthcoming National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, adding: “The position of NGF on that is that we have not taken position because experiences vary."

He disclosed that the $1billion approved from the Excess Crude Account to fight insecurity had been disbursed among the security heads, noting, however, that the amount was not enough to frontally address the myriad of security challenges besetting the country.

Shedding more light on the issue, Fayemi said: “$1 billion may seem like a huge amount of money, and it is a huge amount of money, but when you are dealing with security issues, where a Tucano jet costs over $50million and you are getting about 20, you know how much that is already."

The NGF chairman, who said the meeting was at the instance of the governors, said it afforded them the opportunity to brainstorm on wide-ranging issues of insecurity, including kidnapping, armed robbery, insurgency and militancy, among others.