South-South governors move to set up regional security outfit

South-South governors have agreed to adopt a security outfit to address the security challenges in the region, following in the path of their South West counterparts.

Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum Governor Ifeanyi Okowa disclosed this on Thursday to journalists after a closed-door meeting that lasted nearly three hours.

“We have agreed as a region that there is a need to have a regional security outfit and we have mandated the brace commission to begin to work out the details and brief us at our next meeting which is going to hold in Port Harcourt,” he said.

Highlighting some of the resolutions reached at the meeting, Okowa said on the top of the agenda was the resuscitation of the brace commission which according to him, would help to harmonise policies that would drive the economic cooperation and integration of the region.

The governor also noted that other issues discussed included asking the Federal Government to deduct the 13 per cent derivation from source before allocation to every state in the federation.

“13% derivation must first be taken out of the funds that come from the oil economy before the rest of money is shared,” the Delta State governor stated.
“This 13% is supposed to be for the oil-producing states and that has not been the case for a very long time, and we’ve agreed as governors to take up this matter at the appropriate level”.

Another matter that was discussed was how to curtail the spread of the Coronavirus disease.

Health commissioners of the states in the region were urged to meet urgently to design preventive measures to curb the virus.