From Celestine Ihejirika, Jalingo
A notable chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Taraba State, Chief John Mamman has described the just concluded security consultative summit in the state as “Good Omen” but stressed that its implementation remains ‘wahala’ (challenging).
Chief Mamman stated this during an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Jalingo shortly on arrival from Jos, Plateau State on Tuesday.
While he commended the initiative of Governor Agbu Kefas in that direction, Baba John Mamman as fondly called by his admirers, maintained that security is everybody’s business but the problem depends on the hands of residents for its successful outcome.
According to him, some prominent personalities often make use of the security situation either for personal gains or to harm perceived opponents/enemies in the society.
He said for the government to ensure the full implementation particularly at the national level, some key and by extension, to states, some key projects should be suspended for a period of time and focused mainly on how best to deal with the elements, whom he claimed have taken hundreds of lives of Nigerians.
He further said to achieve this measure, the federal and state governments should collaborate together to ensure that each states provides minimum of hundred youths each for an intensive special training for period of four months in other to deal with the situation, pointing that the training program when completed, will save government/individuals from paying heavy ransoms amount to criminals to secure innocent victims.
The PDP chieftain also disclosed that if the government is serious about eradicating insecurity completely in the system, both federal and state governments should declare a state of emergency across board for a period of two years in order to bring the affected society to book normalcy.
Chief Mamman concluded that the recent summit in the state, if properly implemented and carried out holistically as stated above will go a long way solving the security challenges facing the state and the nation as a whole, citing Zamfara, Katsina, Benue, Plateau and Borno state as highly affected by insurgents.
