Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state has challenged all Local Government Chairmen in the state to brace-up to the security challenges in their area.He said, as Chief Security Officers of their various local governments, the chairmen must liaise with security agencies, and traditional rulers to curtail various forms of criminality especially robbery and cattle rustling in their locality.
The Governor, who stated this in a close-door meeting with the chairmen in Minna, urged them to work with traditional rulers and community elders to ensure that no migrant settle in their locality without notice.
“You must take steps to ensure that you have adequate information on movement of people within your local government areas.The era of allowing migrants to settle in communities without adequate clearance is over”.
Governor Bello reminded the chairmen of the people’s mandate in their trust and enjoined them to use such mandate to better their local government councils by embarking on projects that have direct relevance to the life of the people.
“You are already aware of the present economic situation in the country, therefore, you must create more revenue sources and take advantage of the existing ones to improve on the internally generated revenue (IGR ) as well as block all loopholes and wastages “, he added.
“I urge you to take advantage of revenue sources in your local governments such as markets, motor parks and trailer parks”
The governor urged them to work on their areas of comparative advantage, even as the state government woos investors, in order to ensure easy partnership between the councils and the state.
In a separate meeting with the Vice Chairmen of the councils, Governor Bello highlighted similar issues and charged them to work progressively with the chairmen to actualise their mandate to the people.
Jibrin Baba Ndace
Chief Press Secretary
