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Northern Elders Visit Gov. Ishaku

Northern Elders Visit Gov. Ishaku

The Taraba State Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku, has flayed the elites in the state for being responsible for the myriad of problems the state is facing presently and that the locals are at peace with themselves. He, therefore, stated that he has put the elites aside and decided to work with the locals.

Governor Ishaku made this disclosure Tuesday when he hosted a delegation of Northern Elders from the Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation at the Government House Jalingo.

Reliving his experience when he visited his hometown during the Christmas holidays, Ishaku noted that he personally experienced the Fulani herdsmen fraternizing with native Tarabans and thereby drew the conclusion that the “locals are at peace with themselves”. “We the elites need to learn because we are the biggest problem in the society”, he advised.

He lamented the unfortunate security situation in the State and the helplessness he has found himself as the Governor. According to Ishaku, security men in the State usually “disarm people with den guns and allow those with sophisticated weapons”, a situation which he described as unfortunate.

The governor described the title of ‘chief security officer’ of the state held by the governors as ‘ironical’ because as a governor he has no control of the security situation in his domain. He, therefore, proposed for an amendment of the constitution to provide for State Police. He, however, added that the Federal Police could only act when the situation is beyond the State Police.

While eulogizing the late Ahmadu Bello, Gov. Ishaku rejected the claim that Sir Ahmadu Bello died along with his attributes, saying he died but “we refused to follow his attributes”.

Meanwhile, the delegation from the Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation consists of former Niger state Governor, Babangida Aliyu, former Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau and Justice Mamman Nasir, among others.

While speaking earlier, leader of the delegation, Babangida Aliyu, noted that since the North was not United, others were taking advantage of it. He charged the governor to open up to the security agencies since he couldn’t depend on the center which gives directives to security agencies before action is taken.

Aliyu advised the Governor to pay attention to planning which he observed was done without recourse to the population. He regretted the fact that up till now the budget has not been passed and that by the time the budget was passed, the problems that the budget was made to solve would have been exacerbated. Aliyu, therefore, advised the Governor to lead by example and be equitable.

The highlight of the visit was the presentation of a five-year plan of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation to the Governor.