Governors must speak with one voice against insecurity, says Makinde

Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, has called for cooperation across states to address insecurity in the country.

Makinde spoke after he had a meeting with his Kwara counterpart, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak.

Also present at the meeting were traditional rulers in the border towns in Oyo and Kwara states, as well as heads of security agencies.

The meeting, which held at the office of the Oyo governor in Ibadan on Tuesday, was aimed at solving security threats to the two states.

Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, Makinde urged governors to speak with one voice and be decisive in dealing with security challenges.

He said the stakeholders agreed that intelligence-gathering efforts have to be deepened, so that each state will be able to proactively deal with emerging issues of concern.

“We had an intense security meeting. We acknowledged the efforts of our security agencies. We thank them for the work they are doing. We do appreciate them and we encourage them to do more,” Makinde said.

“We also acknowledged the fact that non-state actors might be getting upper hands in communicating and spreading hatred within our country. So, we asked that our leaders must speak with one voice, especially at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.

“We have to be firm and we have to be decisive in dealing with the security challenges that we are currently faced with. We have also taken notice of the fact that our intelligence-gathering effort has to be deepened.

“Some of the situations that we have been faced with recently, where we have to react, instead of being able to act before those things actually erupted, [are] due to some intelligence failures.

“The traditional rulers on both sides of our border towns within Oyo and Kwara states will be encouraged to come together in fostering unity and exchange of information. That way, our intelligence agencies will be able to proactively deal with the situation, rather than being reactive.

“We agreed that more detailed working teams will be set up between Oyo and Kwara states. We know that the issues to be addressed will have wider national ramifications. Members of the working team will be made known soon.”