Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan
By Omon-Julius Onabu
Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has warned against “playing politics with the issue of security” in the state in order to achieve more results, saying his administration has put in place several strategies to addresses security challenges in the state which are already paying off.
He therefore urged all citizens to ensure that all hands were on deck to checkmate the activities of criminals, including armed robbery, vandalism and illegal oil bunkering and the newest of crimes, kidnapping, since anyone could be a victim.
Uduaghan, who stressed that neither unemployment nor any other reasons can justify kidnapping and other forms of criminality, said the strategies aimed at tackling the security problem involved the various security agencies as well as traditional and community leaders across the state.
“There is no doubt that we have security challenges not only in Delta State but the country at large,” the governor said during a chat with journalists in Warri Thursday, warning that the problem could not be effectively solved “when we start playing politics with it.”
“We have security challenges at the national level, we also have security challenges at the local or state level; but I can assure you that as a state we have put a lot of strategies in place, and we are winning the war against kidnappers and other criminals.
“Unemployment is not peculiar to Delta State or Nigeria for that matter; unemployment is a global problem and it is not an excuse for criminality,” he further said, stressing that the bottom-line of his administration’s three-point development agenda was job creation and reduction of unemployment.
“The ultimate goal of the three-point agenda, that is, Peace and Security, Human Resource Development and Infrastructure Development, are all aimed.
“Over 12,000 persons have been employed since the inception of his government in 2007 spanning the state civil service, the health and educational institutions including the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH) Oghara and the state’s schools, universities and polytechnics.”
“Thousands of workers were also absorbed by the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) and in other sundry areas like sports through automatic employment of strong athletes, he said even though he said he could not give the overall figure of employees off hand.
“A considerable number of people would in the next few days be added to the list of state employees as Asaba International Airport workers,” Uduaghan said.
On general infrastructural development, he said the state capital and other major towns and cities like Warri/Effurun, Sapele, Ughelli and Uzere were being given a facelift through the renovation of roads and renewal of their respective drainage systems to tackle the menace of flooding that had caused extensive damage.
“We are making concerted efforts at making Asaba a more functional administrative headquarters,” he said.
He also said government was in the process of enacting a law on “Public Behaviour and Public Order,” which will prescribe specific penalties for offences like bad environmental and sanitation habits amongst others.