Pipeline contract: Akeredolu knocks FG on state security
The Ondo State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, has condemned the alleged refusal of the Federal Government to strengthen the security of the states of the Federation.
Akeredolu alleged that the Federal Government was taking part in the ostrich by abandoning states to their fates regarding the security of lives and property of the folks however reasonably empowering some non-public security outfits within the nation.
The governor acknowledged this in a press release he issued via his Chief Press Secretary on Wednesday. This was in response to the latest purported award of contracts by the Federal Government to some non-public security outfits to guard the pipelines from being vandalised.
According to the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, the motion of the FG has implied that it permitted
non-public security outfits “to bear heavy assault weapons while denying the same privilege to the states, the federating units,” to deal with insecurity.
The assertion learn partially, “The information regarding the purported award of pipeline contracts to some people and personal organisations by the Federal Government has been unsettling. More disquieting is the hardly disguised hostility displayed in opposition to both the thought or the precise institution of security outfits by some State Governments to fill the widening gaps within the scope of security protection noticeable nationally.
“The Federal Government, via the Office of the National Security Adviser, has been constant in its refusal to accede to the request by some states within the Federation to strengthen the complementary initiatives adopted to guard lives and property. This is completed despite the data that the very points which necessitated the creation of those outfits help offering enough weaponry. All makes an attempt to steer the Federal Government to look critically into the present security structure have been rebuffed regardless of the manifest basic defects engendered by over-centralisation.
“It is, therefore, shocking to read that the Federal Government has maintained the award of the contract to ‘protect’ the country’s pipeline from vandals to private organisations. This story, if true, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The NSA will, obviously, not advise the President to approve the award of a contract of such magnitude if the operators have not displayed sufficient capacity to checkmate the criminal activities of equally powerful groups. Consequently, it is safe to conclude that the Federal Government has, impliedly, permitted non-state actors to bear heavy assault weapons while denying the same privilege to the states, the federating units.”
The governor added, “The award of contract to non-public organisations to guard pipelines increase basic questions on the sincerity of the advisers of the federal government on security points. The open and seeming enthusiastic embrace of this oddity, regardless of the fixed and constant avowal of the readiness by the security businesses, particularly, the navy to comprise the pervasive and deepening crises of breaches and threats to lives and property, attracts the cost of insincerity bordering, deplorably, on dubiety.
“If the state governments, that are keenly desirous of defending their residents, set up ancillary security outfits and there was pronounced reluctance, if not outright refusal, to think about letting them bear arms for the only function of defence, granting non-public people and or organisations unfettered entry to assault weapons suggests, curiously, deep-seated suspicion and mistrust between the Federal Government and the presumed federating models.
“The engagement of private organisations to handle serious security challenges reinforces the belief that the whole defence architecture in the country needs an urgent overhaul. The Federal Government cannot be seen to be playing the ostrich in this regard.” Punch.ng
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