South-South Governors Set To Establish Regional Security Network

The governors of the South-South states on Thursday announced their resolution to establish a regional security outfit  to address the security challenges in the region.

Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, disclosed this on Thursday to journalists after a closed-door meeting that lasted nearly three hours.

“We have agreed as a region that there is a need to have a regional security outfit and we have mandated the brace commission to begin to work out the details and brief us at our next meeting which is going to hold in Port Harcourt,” he said.

The governor also revealed that the forum resolved to ask the Federal Government to deduct the 13 per cent derivation from source before allocation to every state in the federation.

“We also took other decisions concerning Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and the need to insist that 13 per cent Derivation must first be taken out of the funds that come from oil before the rest of the funds is shared at FAAC.

“The 13 per cent is supposed to be for the oil-producing states and that has not been the situation for a very long time and we agreed as governors, to take up this matter at the appropriate levels,” Mr Okowa said, according to his media office.

“We also took a decision on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the need to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute the Advisory Board of the Commission because it has a major role to play, though in an advisory capacity.

“This is because we believe that there is a need to reposition NDDC to take on regional projects rather than small projects, and this we are going to pursue as quickly as possible,’’ he said.