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| Delta's House of Reps caucus, from left Hon. Ossai N. Ossai, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, Hon. Victor Nwokolo and Hon. Ben Igbakpa. during their visit to Governor Okowa to endorse his Operation Delta Hawk security initiative. |
Members of the Delta caucus in the House of Representatives have
endorsed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa's move to establish a new security outfit in
the state.
The caucus said it was impressed by the governor's decision to
set up the security outfit known as "Operation Delta Hawk" in view of
the prevailing insecurity in the state, ranging from herders-farmers clashes,
kidnapping and other violent crimes.
Minority Leader of the House, Chief Ndudi Elumelu, who led the
caucus on a solidarity meeting with the Governor at Government House, Asaba,
disclosed that the caucus visited to thank the governor for his initiative on
rising insecurity in the state through the proposed security outfit.
According to Elumelu, we are here to express the unalloyed
support of the caucus to His Excellency's decision to set up a security
apparatus in the state, which has already been named Operation Delta Hawk.
He also said that the caucus was appreciative of the way and
manner the state government had been fighting the Coronavirus pandemic and for
providing palliatives to vulnerable Deltans during the lockdown period.
The Minority Leader, who was accompanied by his colleagues I the
House of Reps Hon. Ossai Ossai, Hon. Victor Nwokolo and Hon. Ben Igbakpa,
disclosed that they also came to consult the governor on the contentious
Infectious Diseases Bill before the House.
"We have come to visit our Governor to interact with him,
but most importantly to congratulate him because since COVID-19 started, we
have not had time to come because of the lockdown so we had to seek permission
to come and thank him immensely for the manner in which he has carried out the
issue of COVID-19.
"On the floor of the House, we pride ourselves as people
from Delta because our governor has been able to distinguish himself creditably
in the manner in which he has catered for the people of the state.
"We are proud of him because apart from being governor, he
has also been very empathetic with the plight of Deltans.
"We also came to commune with him on the things that has
been happening in the House most especially, the Infectious Diseases Control
Bill and to discuss with him on the inter-state lockdown and how it can be
sustained to discourage people moving from various states to another.
"Aside implementing the lockdown, we also congratulated the
governor on his decision to set up 'Operation Delta Hawk' which we believe will
help in solving the insecurity problem that we currently face in Nigeria and
not even Delta alone.
"The measures he has taken so far in addressing the
insecurity as it relates to Delta is something we are very proud of and that is
why we are here," he said.
He stressed that with regards to the infectious diseases bill
before the lawmakers, they were in Asaba to seek the governor's opinion as a
medical doctor and on how the Delta caucus will approach the issue.
According to Elumelu, we were elected by Deltans to represent
their interests and whatever views the governor may have collated from the
opinion of Deltans will form the focus of our action on the contentious bill.
On his part, Nwokolo said that setting up of Operation Delta
Hawk was a proactive step in line with Community Policing initiative of the
Inspector-General of Police.
"What he has done in setting up the security outfit is in
the right direction and that is one of the reasons why we are here to commend
him for being proactive because the actions he has taken are in the right
direction because we can't keep folding our hands.
"All over the world we are talking about community
policing, so setting up Operation Delta Hawk is in that direction which will
bring up a team of professionals in the real sense of security professionals to
advise the state in what direction to go.
"He is being proactive and we must commend him because you
can't be putting infrastructure for your people yet they are killing them every
day.
"He is one man who doesn't believe in self-help and being
lawless and that's exactly what he has decided to do and we are optimistic that
he will record huge success from this decision as he has always had in the
past.
"He believes in the State House of Assembly and whatever he
does must be backed up by law," he added.
In his contribution, Igbakpa commended Okowa for measures at
re-opening the state's economy after the lockdown.
"Most people, especially the daily-income-earners suffered
immensely during the lockdown; a lot of people are suffering but government
alone cannot come to their aid no matter the level of palliative that
government will bring to them.
"So, the essence is to open the economy and let certain
parts of the economy function, like the construction industry. We are very much
in support of the re-opening of the state economy.
"We know that the pandemic is still there but we have to
learn to live with it because COVID-19 is real; we must maintain all protocols
as directed by the NCDC," he said.
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