Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has said the existing police structure is grossly inadequate to curb the prevailing security challenge confronting the country.
Fayemi advocated for state police as the panacea to the multifaceted insecurity menace facing the country and to facilitate better security cover for the 170 million Nigerian citizens.
Speaking in Ado-Ekiti on Monday evening while appearing on the monthly programme, tagged: “Meet Your Governor” aired by Ekiti-based media outfits, the governor said the state government had concluded plans to build a modern and well-equipped police station at Iwaraja, a border town between Ekiti and Osun states.
This, he said, would stem the tide of rising waves of kidnappings and killings being perpetrated between Efon Alaaye Ekiti and Iwaraja and to make the axis safe for commuters.
Fayemi said he has been facilitating series of meetings across the country and Southwest in particular as the Chairman of Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum on the need to have a joint security network that will stamp out evil-doers from the zone.
“The governors, traditional rulers and other stakeholders are meeting across the Southwest and we are taking steps to ensure that our people are safe to do their businesses without fear of being killed or kidnapped.
“In Ekiti, we are going to build a modern police station between Efon and Iwaraja to patrol the section where we had had reported cases of kidnappings and other crimes.”
“Very soon, our people will be seeing leopard branded patrol vehicles of the Operation Rapid Response Squad (RRS). This is a modern security outfit that will be operating in Ekiti and other Southwest states. They are to work hand-in-hand with each other to ward off any form of security threat.
“This issue of security is more important to me than any other issue or policy of government, because if this place is safe, investors will surely come in and do businesses with us,”, he said.
The governor added that the Ekiti State Security Trust had been signed into law and this, he said, would help in fortifying the security architecture of the state when it begins operation.
On the issue of salary, Fayemi assured the workers of regular payment of salaries and pensions, saying the era when payment of civil servants’ benefits were considered as favour rather than a right was over.
“Apart from regular payment of their benefits, we are also assuring them that the backlog of salaries and pension will be paid,” the governor said.
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