In a significant development, the South-South Governors Forum revealed on Thursday March 5 that they have resolved to create a unified security outfit to combat the growing insecurity in the region.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa made this announcement at the conclusion of a meeting with fellow Governors from the South-South region, informing that they have collectively decided that the BRACED Commission (an acronym for Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, and Delta) would be responsible for formulating the operational framework for the security outfit.
In his statement, Governor Okowa stated;
“I am sure you know the five governors standing here out of the six governors in the South-South; We have just finished our governors’ forum meeting.
“Unfortunately, the Cross River Governor, Ben Ayade, was held back in Abuja and could not make it to the meeting.
“We took very far-reaching decisions and I must thank my brothers for attending this meeting.
“We took decision concerning the BRACED Commission which was established 10 years ago by our colleagues who were governors before we came on board.
“We have decided to restart the commission and ensure we provide the necessary logistics for it to function properly.
“The commission is to help us look into the issues of regional economy and the need to collectively develop our region instead of working as individual states.
“A lot has been done in terms of documentation in the past five years. We have agreed to restart the commission with the headquarters in River State.”
Okowa further revealed that in the forthcoming meeting, scheduled to take place in Port Harcourt in a few weeks, the commission would present the operational plan for the regional security outfit.
He also stated;
“We also discussed the issues of Federation Accounts Allocation. We agreed that the 13 percent derivation fund should be deducted before the revenue derived from oil is shared.
“This 13 percent derivation fund is supposed to be for the oil-producing states and we have agreed as governors to take up this matter at the appropriate level.”