COVID-19: Unfocused LGC Chairmen Risk Sack – Lalong
BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – Governor Simon Bako Lalong has continued his efforts to fortify the state from the onslaught of the raging Corona virus by ordering the Chairmen of the 17 Local Government Areas of the State to take adequate measures and “activate security machinery” to secure their respective domains from the Covid-19 and other forms of insecurity threatening the state.
Lalong, who was stern and unambiguous in his warning to the leadership of the local councils, told the Local Government chairmen that any one of them found to have compromised security or treat security matters with lukewarm attitude stands the risk of being removed from office.
He warned; “I don’t want to be taken unawares again.”
The Governor emphasized his commitment to keep the Covid-19 pandemic out of the State in his address at a one-day workshop for Local Government Councils chairmen and secretaries on the subject of “security reportage”.
Lalong reminded the workshop participants that “as local government Chairmen and security councils secretaries, you have a great role to play in ensuring that credible, actionable, and timely intelligence is sourced at the grassroots level to enable government take proper action as, and when due”.
Lalong continued; “The way and manner this information is processed and passed on to the relevant security agencies is of great concern and even more crucial because, in some cases, it is a matter of life and death”.
In his remarks at the opening ceremony, the State commissioner for health, Dr Nimkong Lar Ndam, reiterated that Plateau state has not recorded any Corona virus case.
Dr Ndam however said that appropriate agencies of the State are on red alert, with three isolation centres at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), the Plateau Specialist Hospital, and the Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jankwano, Jos.
Although Lalong urged the participants to pay special attention to the imperatives of community policing and how to work effectively and closely with traditional and community leaders for synergy and communal harmony, topics for technical deliberation at the workshop included ‘analysis of intelligence gathering’ and ‘communication for proactive community response’.
