Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has declared that security has improved tremendously in Benue State in the last three years under the present administration.
He gave the assessment on Wednesday while speaking with the State House Correspondents.
He attributed the positive narratives on the state of security in the North Central state to the commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to walk the talk on the safety of lives and property, efficient operations of security forces and cooperation of stakeholders in the state.
Governor Alia noted that the development has led to few number of Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs) camps as the citizens, mostly agrarian, are returning to their homes to cultivate the farmlands.
He said: “Since 1999, we have been in the front lines of insecurity. But this is one administration that in the last 3 years, has fought insecurity to a standstill.
“There is relative peace in the state now, we have less IDPs camps . As an agrarian people, we know that if we don’t go back to farm, there will be food insecurity.
But our people can now expand their farms. How have they been able to do this? Through farming implements and other farm inputs, heavily subsidised by the government. That has led to high farm produce.”
Governor Alia also revealed that farmlands are apportioned to people in the IDP centres with all the necessary farming implements and inputs to create an avenue for them to make money for themselves outside the financial handouts from the government.
The Benue State Governor further disclosed that same gesture is extended to security personnel with apportioned farm settlements close to those assigned to people in IDPs camps to guarantee security of the latter.
“If there is no security, people won’t be emboldened to go to farm so we remain grateful to the federal government.
“We provide the farm inputs but they plant since it is their farms.
“The only question they ask us is, “do you want to buy?”. We don’t want them to depend on the handouts that we give them. We support them.
“We also apportion farmland to security agencies side by side with the IDPs to guarantee their security. They have farms accepted hours amd the IDPs move with security men on ground.”
Responding to the strong reservations trailing the proposed legislation for State Police, the Benue State Governor urged Nigerians not to be swayed by those who argued that it will be abused by state governors. He maintained that the gains of State Policing outweigh the likely abuse being bandied by those against it.
Also commenting on the indifference of state governors to local councils autonomy despite Supreme Court judgement, Governor Alia told newsmen that his state had since complied with the judgement.
He said: Benue State is one hundred per cent compliant with local government autonomy.
“When I came in, it was only the legislature that had full autonomy. Our local government autonomy is sacrosanct and they have it. Same with judiciary. As I speak, our local governments have declared emergency on road infrastructure. Where do you think that is coming from? It is their money that they get directly.
“It has freed me from a lot of things, what I do is supervision. Now I have a less headache. Benue is number one compliant on autonomy.”