Taraba Gov says fears over state police unfounded

• …As Abaribe calls PDP responsible opposition

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

Governor of Taraba State, Architect Darius Ishaku has made a passionate case for the creation of state police to complement the effort of other security agencies in the maintenance of law and order in the country.

The Governor made the case while speaking at a world press conference addressed by the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday in Abuja.

Architect Ishaku particularly lamented the growing insecurity in the land, disclosing that at the state level, “people do no understand when we tell them that there is nothing we can do to address the security challenges.”

His words,  “At the state level, we are finding it difficult to explain to our people how terrible the security situation is. People are saying state police will be abused but let  us experiment with it. If it fails, we will reverse it.

“The federal government must train and equip our military, police and other security forces for us to get out of this problem”, he stated.

The Governor tasked the All Progressives Congress-led federal government to stand up to its responsibility, “We in the PDP are ready to give a helping hands”.

Also responding to a question on claims by the ruling party that the PDP is offering a shallow opposition, Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe said the party “is a responsible opposition. What people are trying to do is to compare us with that contraption called the All Progressives Congress, APC when they were in opposition.

“We have been in power before but we are not going to speak irresponsibly like people in the street.

“PDP is a responsible opposition. We are not shallow. We weigh our words. We don’t want to be opposition which wants to destroy. We want to be opposition that builds.”, he said.

He added that “those who want to break the country are those who are working to promote  ethnic triumphalism.”

Also speaking at the press conference, the immediate past Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki said the PDP will continue to pressurize the ruling party and the federal government to do the right thing stressing that “Pressure on government will yield the needed dividends.

“We will continue to push constitutionally and we are confident that we will get there,” he added.