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From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has called for partnership with the Nigerian Navy to curb the insecurity bedeviling the state and the entire south east region.
Mba, said the partnership has become necessary to stop the menace of activities of criminals terrorizing the peace of the region.
The governor who made the appeal when he visited the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla at the Naval Headquarters in Abuja, called on the Nigerian Navy to expand its operational activities to the state.
He said his administration was ready to partner with the navy and other security agencies to put an end to security challenges in the South East.
Mbah, who told the CNS, that he was at the navy headquarters to identify with him as an indigene who of the state as well as appreciate President Bola Tinubu for the honour of appointing a son of the state as CNS, said his administration had outlined measures to achieve exponential growth in the state through sound economic policies, and that such policies could only make progress in a secure and peaceful environment.
The governor who lamented on the insecurity in the region, said “If we must deal with the root causes of insecurity, we must adopt both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to dealing with insecurity and we felt that the big elephant in the room was to address those activities that may be an inhibition to bringing in investors to our state.
“We felt that it was a clog in the wheel of our continued development which was why immediately I took over as the governor, I convened the security council meeting.
“Following from that we made an announcement that we wanted the Monday sit-at-home to end, because we have zero tolerance to that.
“We needed to heighten our security architecture and to mobilise all the security agencies in our state to be able to deal with this, and thus far we are getting the required support we need from the various security agencies.
“We are also hoping that we are going to invite the Navy on board to join hands with us to be able to deal with these big elephants in the room”.
Welcoming the governor to the Naval headquarters, Rear Admiral Ogalla, while noting that the relationship between the Nigerian navy and other stakeholders like state governments had been instrumental to the successes they have been achieving, said the current security challenges facing the country required the whole of government approach.
The CNS, who said the navy had extended its operations to cover a good part of the region pointed out that the naval base and the special forces deployed in the South East had been contributing to the security apparatus in the region and promised to extend those operations further.
He assured that the navy would continue to partner with state governments and other stakeholders to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive for the overall economic wellbeing and progress of the country.
