The Southwest Governors’ Forum has resolved to establish a Joint Surveillance and Monitoring Team.
The team will be tasked with coordinating security operations across the region.
This is part of the communique issued at the end of the Forum’s meeting held Thursday at the State House in Lagos.
The move, they said, is a direct response to the emerging threats of ISWAP and other criminal groups whose activities are inimical to the peace and stability of the Southwest.
The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, hosted the meeting at The Lagos House in Ikeja.
Other governors present at the meeting include: The governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, and Governors Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Biodun Oyebanji of Ondo and Ekiti respectively.
Governors Dapo Abiodun and Ademola Adeleke of Ogun and Osun States respectively were also present.
The Governor’s said “Recognising emerging security threats, we resolved to establish a Joint Surveillance and Monitoring Team to enhance security coordination across the South West,” Lagos State’s Babajide Sanwo-Olu wrote on his X handle after the one-day meeting.
The Lagos governor who is the chairman of the Forum re-echoed the governors’ resolve to make “decisive actions to ensure the safety and stability of our communities”.
Since assuming office in May 2023, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has reeled out a raft of economic policies including the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of currency.
These two moves, experts say, have led to a ballooning inflation rate pushing the cost of basic items beyond the reach of millions of Nigerians
But during the meeting, Sanwo-Olu said the governors “passed a vote of confidence on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the economic stability and improvements recorded across the nation, particularly in the sustained supply and distribution of petroleum products and the stabilisation of the exchange rate”.
They blamed the rising food prices in Nigeria on “unscrupulous middlemen in the supply chain” but “agreed to create a State Food Inflation Joint Monitoring Team and establish Aggregation Centres and Food Hubs to combat food inflation”.
The South-West governors also lauded the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) introduced by President Tinubu’s government.
They said the initiative has “greatly benefited students in our region” and called on eligible students “to take advantage” of it and further their education.
The South-West governors equally thanked the Federal Government for creating the South West Development Commission (SWDC) with its headquarters in Cocoa House in Ibadan, Oyo State.
“I have full confidence in Odu’a Investment Company Limited’s management of our regional assets,” Sanwo-Olu said. “We urged the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission to strengthen collaboration with our Commissioners for Agriculture to boost industrialisation and infrastructure development.
