BEING THE REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. UDOM EMMANUEL, GOVERNOR, AKWA IBOM STATE, AT THE OPENING OF CONFERENCE AND RETREAT FOR SENIOR POLICE OFFICERS, BY PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR, IBOM HOTELS AND RESORT, UYO-FEBRUARY 8TH, 2022
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Let me on behalf of the Government and the good people of Akwa Ibom State; welcome our President and Commander- In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) to our dear State.
Let me also use this opportunity to thank the Inspector- General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba and the entire hierarchy of the Nigerian Police Force, for selecting our beautiful and serene Capital City of Uyo as the venue for this retreat.
You have come to us, because of who we are: hospitable, welcoming, a land of delicious and enticing cuisines, and above all peaceful and inviting, thus validating what most Nigerians and others who have visited our State, have come to identify us as ‘’Nigeria’s Best Kept Secret.’’
This retreat is timely. Timely, because we are living in an age where known approaches to fighting crimes have been tested, thus necessitating the evolution of new strategies. We are living in an age and time, where criminals have reinvented their wheels of criminal enterprise; where non-state actors with no known addresses have infiltrated our space, where a neighbour may be kidnapers, or runs a terrorist cell. This reality calls for new strategies to take the fight to these enemies of peace and defeat them. The first step to achieving this usually starts from retreats such as the one you are having here.
Let me use this opportunity to thank the Nigerian Police and other Sister Security Agencies for the robust cooperation we have received from them, thus ensuring the relative peace we have enjoyed in this State for the past almost seven years now.
Our Nation is going though security challenges and we must join the Nigerian Police and other members of the Nigerian Security Architecture to help keep us safe.
I have always advocated for a robust redeployment of intelligence apparati, both human and electronic and I am glad that this approach appears to have taken ascendance among other items in crime fighting tools box of the Security Agencies.
We should also look at the root causes of why people embrace criminal activities especially among our youths: Issue of unemployment and hopelessness must be tackled and addressed holistically.
I am however, sure that with the array of resource persons you have selected, you will come up with solid recommendations that would in the end, help us live a more peaceful and secure lives.
Welcome again to Akwa Ibom State and I wish you a happy retreat. God bless the Akwa Ibom State, God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.