Governor, Darius Ishaku. Photo: Sodiq
Adelakun/ChannelsTV
Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku is appealing to the
federal government and other humanitarian agencies to assist in
rebuilding structures vandalized and replacing items looted by
hoodlums in the wake of the #EndSARS protest that greeted the
nation.
While lamenting that the state government uses its scarce
resources to pay salaries and carry out other developmental plans,
the governor describes the destruction as colossal and quantum,
insisting that bouncing back can only take the grace of God,
especially now that the country is into recession.
”Absolutely, the state government does not have the resources
and definitely we will need assistance from the federal government
and that’s the finality of it,” the governor said on Tuesday after
an assessment of destroyed properties in the state capital,
Jalingo.
”We do not have the resources and we are hoping that the federal
government will come in to assist us, otherwise, we will just
ground to a halt.
”You have seen the damage and the much talked about food is for
those in distress especially the internally displaced persons and
we kept it for eventualities as no one anticipates trouble, it is
really sad indeed. It is colossal damage all over and quantum
destruction.
”Talking about how we can start to repair it, I do not know
because the scarce resources the state has is what is used to
ensure that we keep the state functioning and with this setback,
only God knows when we can be able to bounce back.”
The governor who was visibly saddened by what he saw, especially
at the Hope Afresh Foundation, a skills acquisition centre
belonging to his wife Anna Ishaku insists, that there should be a
rethink to protests and its degenerating effect.
”It is a huge destruction and as you can see we are just from
the Hope Afresh Foundation for less than one year they have trained
about 1650 people on different skills, these hoodlums came and took
away everything,” he explained.”It is not even about the building
but equipping it.”
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With the meagre resources available to the state government and
the country going into recession Governor Ishaku says it is a sad
development that will not ensure a quick rebuild.
”With this meagre resources, the country is already in
recession, I think it is a very sad development that happened to us
in the country,” he noted.
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“Yes in a democracy, you are allowed to air your contrary views,
but not in a destructive manner like this”
”We have prepared our report but with the COVID-19 pandemic that
has trimmed our resources to below 55% and a very poor state like
Taraba, we have been living up to expectation by paying salaries
and now even if we manage to pay salaries, we will manage to do
nothing else.”
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He stressed that the security architecture of the country needs
to be overhauled and constitution amended to accommodate local,
state and federal police for effective response in situations like
this because the police were not helpful during the looting.
”As you are very much aware the security agencies are not under
my control and I have said that repeatedly from day one when I
resumed I said there is something defective about our
constitution,” the governor said.
”When you make someone a governor, even in America where we
copied the constitution from, the state has their state police,
local government police and Federal police”
”In that structure, what is bigger than the local police, the
state police takes over and what is bigger than the state police,
the federal police takes over, but we copied the police defectively
and we removed the power of the Governor from running the state
police and of course you expect this kind of chaos and the reason
was that the police stood watching the hoodlums perpetrate the act
without hindrance.
”It is just like me in my house, anyone can pick me up now, it
is very sad and the constitution has to be amended so as to serve
its purpose and if it cannot serve its purpose, then it is
useless.”
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He adds that the destructive manner calls for reorientation for
future protests.
The governor visited warehouses belonging to late governor
Danbaba Suntai, Taraba state Transport Corporation, Veterinary
Clinic, Hope Afresh Foundation and Biotechnology Centre all in
Jalingo, the state capital.
The looting and vandalization of warehouses took place when the
governor was out of the state for an official engagement.