By Newslineglobal
Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah
has reassured residents and visitors in the state of their safety, stressing that his administration had placed security agencies on the highest level of alert to forestall security breaches and sefeguard their lives and property.
He urged them to erase everything about sit-at-home in the state from their memories, saying that the government was doing everythinhto liase with other neighbouring states in order to dislodge criminals from their hideouts.
Governor Mbah gave the assurances on Thursday in Enugu at a meeting with the Presidents-General (PGs) of all the autonomous communities in the state.
He lamented the devastating impacts of the unlawful sit-at-home, such as impoverishing citizens and scaring potential investors, saying that his administration would deal ruthlessly with criminal elements disturbing the peace of the state.
Pix-PGs
The Governor said there’s a comnection between sit-at-home and poverty among the people. He said warniq
that security operatives would continue to strike hooligans victimizing the public over a wrong and unjustifiable cause.
He wondered why those sitting at the comfort of their homes somewhere overseas would be hurting innocent people in a sponsored bid to distabilize the South East zone, saying it’s only those living in delusion that would hide under the guise of fighting for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s release to commit atrocities.
Mbah reiterated his resolve to make the state attractive for private investors, create jobs, train the youths on digital transformation, and restore the lost glory the state was known for through his programmes and policies.
“It is time to take ownership of our future. It’s time to say enough is enough to this menace because we’re using the sit-at-home to marginalise ourselves. How does this illegal sit-at-home by criminals affect the Federal Government, or the economic planning in Abuja? Don’t be deceived by people who want to make you believe they’re fighting for your cause. They’re criminals sponsored to distabilize our state, our region and our people. We must resist them and say, enough is enough. We must erase everything about sit-at-home from our memories and go back to our culture of industry, creativity and commerce.
“We did say to you that we have plans to move the state from public sector to private sector driven economy by growing the gross domestic product sevenfold. We can only achieve this humongous and ambitious plan in an atmosphere of peace and security.
“So, I call on you to galvanize your communities and take the message to them that there is no such thing as sit-at-home whether it is on Monday or any other days.
“With our resolve here today, we can collectively end sit-at-home by overcoming fear and by not allowing anyone to make us inferior without our consent.
“With peace and security, we can generate enough wealth, create employments, engage our people meaningfully, and achieve our promises to the people,” the governor added.
Responding on behalf of other President Generals, Sir Eze Solomon,of the association of town unions in Enugu West Senatorial Zone, commended the governor for his proactive approach to curbing insecurity and ensuring citizens were protected from hoodlums.
He lamented the dearth of police presence in rural communities, urging the state to deploy more security agencies to the rural communities to strengthen the confidence of the people.
Another PG, Dr. Barth Nwankwo, In a remark, appreciated Gov Mbah for the plans and policies his administration had rolled out just a few days in office, maintaining that they were ready to partner with both the state government and the local government to flush out criminals in their areas.
On his part, Hon. Isaac urged the governor to embark on aggressive sensitisation programme particularly in rural areas to educate the people on the need to go about their normal businesses as sit-at-home had become a thing of the past.
The PGs assured the governor that they were in support of his decision to end sit-at-home, saying, we will work to deliver on that.’
The PGs appealed to Governor Mbah to reorganise, train, equip and strengthen community policing Neighbourhood Watch, Forest Guard and vigilante groups.