The Ijaw National Congress (INC) on Sunday urged President Bola Tinubu to give security challenge in the country all the necessary attention it requires. Prof Benjamin Okaba, President of the INC, who, in a statement on Sunday, expressed concerns over the security situation in the country, said expectations of Nigerians were high.
Okaba urged Tinubu to prioritise Nigeria’s internal security challenges.
He called on the president to ensure significant difference noticable in the lives of citizens, who have continued to live and go about their daily activities in subdued fear and anxiety.
“The Ijaw National Congress (INC) recalls that President Tinubu, since his inauguration, has held at least two security meetings between June and July.
“The meetings with the Service Chiefs, including the acting Inspector General of Police, that he appointed after sacking their predecessors which he inherited from Buhari.
He said efforts should be made to ensure fundamental paradigm shift in the war against insurgency, banditry and kidnap-for-ransom in all parts of the country, ” he said.
He also called on the president to address the environmental, and other challenges in the Niger Delta.
“The INC likes to point out that the Niger Delta is not spared as poverty is weaponized through environmental degradation, resource injustice, infrastructural neglect, among others.
“The region has been reduced to a conundrum of mass anger, frustration, hopelessness, and this is generating anger if these issues are not adequately addressed.
He said Ijaw nation was not opposed to intervention in resolving the political logjam in Niger Republic but the internal security should be paramount
”Therefore, we implore the Federal Government to focus its attention on the internal security of Nigeria and galvanize its security policy.
He commended the President for appointing Kayode Egbetokun, as Acting IGP, which he said had an in-depth grasp of the internal security issues facing the country.
He expressed the belief that Egbetokun was capable of taking the right decisions to frontally tackle them and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the government.
“The INC recognises the fact that acting IGP Egbetokun assumed office without career casualties of officers of the same rank with him, which was not obtainable in previous occasions.
“We also note his tacit recognition of year of enlistment into the Force as the hallmark of seniority in the police institution, and not career mobility which occasionally may arise from exigencies of the moment.
“We hope that his genial leadership disposition would reposition the Force for improved maintenance of law and order across the country.” (NAN)
