Following the plan by the Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to recruit over 500 youths as vigilantes, the state chairman for the ruling All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Hadi Ametuo, has condemned the proposal as an exercise outside the party’s manifesto.
He said the planned vigilance group by the governor was personal to him as the party was not informed.
The party chairman, in an interview with our correspondent, noted, however, that the proposed security agents were supposed to be unarmed guards.
He said, “That is not in our own manifesto for APC; what is in our manifesto is good governance and projects that focus on the welfare of the people of Kogi State.
“Vigilantes, in the history of this country, are not supposed to be bearing arms. We are not condemning them because the government is my party. So far if the Inspector General of Police thinks it’s good, I don’t have any contrary opinion.”
He added that the plans would not have been approved if the Inspector General of Police didn’t see the need for it.
“I think the governor has consulted the IGP before implementing this; if the IGP did not agree it, the policy would have not been implemented; he is a security person.”
He stated that their ordeal notwithstanding, Kogi civil servants were pleased with Bello’s latest policy, “otherwise they would have protested.”
“Unpaid workers are there but I think we have been trying, by paying in percentage in Kogi State. If it does not augur well with them, the civil servants would have stated it.”
He added, “Really, development in the state is not payment of salary; it is water, infrastructure, good roads and the rest. The civil servants are enjoying what they are being given, so we cannot talk for them, because it is my party.”
