The governor of Delta State and chairman of South-South Governors’ Forum, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has said that stakeholders in the south-south region joint security network were yet to come up with a name for it.
Okowa who spoke of a Channels Television programme ‘Politics Today’ however said the Forum had asked the BRACED regional security and we have asked the BRACED (Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Delta) Commission to work out the details and brief the governors.
He said most governors in the region had been working individually as states to curb the various security challenges.
He said since states in the region face the same security threats occasioned by herdsmen killings and incidents of kidnapping, the governor thought it wise to come together to challenge the common enemy.
“We thought that it would be best as a region if we came together to collaborate with ourselves, realising that we share boundaries, and a situation where, talking about the issue of herdsmen/farmers clashes, they come through similar routes – from one state they can progress to another, and even when you come to the issue of kidnapping which has been a very troubling challenge at the moment, you find people operate probably in Edo and before you know it they are in Delta and in the next couple of days they are operating in Rivers State and it goes that way.
“So, we thought that if we are able to start a regional security outfit, we will be able to co-monitor and co-share information, working along with the security agencies and put the initial processes that we have as individual states, to be managed as a regional outfit in such a manner that it will become more productive,” said Okowa.
Considering the nature of the region, and terrain are you considering different templates for managing the situation?
When the security outfit comes on stream, the governor said there will be different templates for managing it.
“Obviously, we are going to have different templates for managing it. It’s a holistic management; when you come into the waterways, the things that tend to confront you more is sea piracy and illegal bunkering and of course, it’s a different approach in such cases, but the issue is that when we have a shared information and security communication between our various security agencies, communications among our youths, who also help to give us a lot of intelligence information, it will foster coordination of security in the region,” he added.
