Plateau governorship aspirant, pledges to prioritise security

A Plateau Governorship Aspirant, Brig.-Gen. John Sura (rtd), has pledged to prioritise security in the state in order to return peace and development, if elected the governor.

Sura stated this on Sunday in Abuja while submitting his nomination and expression of interest forms at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretariat.

The retired one-star general, who decried the level of insecurity in Plateau, said that under his watch the economy, infrastructural development, empowerment and tackling insecurity would be given the needed attention.

He said that the state needed leaders with character, capacity and ability to stand for the people at all times.

He that he had all it required to lead the state and return it to the path of peace and development.

He said that he had the remedy to secure the people and make them to go back to their ancestral homes and engage in their traditional farming and other activities.

Part of the measures, according to him, is to re-establish the Plateau State private security outfit, codenamed “Operation Rainbow, which was established under the administration of Gov. Jonah Jang.

He said that the security outfit contributed its own quota to the maintenance of peace along in conjunction with other security agencies in the state.

He noted that unfortunately when Jang left office the security outfit was no longer operational, its personnel were abandoned and its equipment donated to mainstream security agencies.

“We will look at its inadequacies and also see how we can restructure and redeploy it to assist the federal security forces,“ he said.

On the presidential pardon granted to some erstwhile Plateau governors, he said: “When you have already punished somebody, you do not need to take a sledgehammer to kill the person.

“For posterity sake, I think the punishment has gone that far. Again, it has served as a deterrent to those who are in government and those who also intend to come in.”

He said that looking at it from any perspective, the offence sometimes might not have been committed directly by governor but his staff , “yet he carries the burden because every buck stops on his table“.

Sura said it was, therefore, important for state executives to train their workers and also engage forensic skills in dealing with the finances of their states.

“We must also begin to look for real technocrats who understand what it takes to put somebody into trouble. Such technocrats should be made to head departments, especially in situations where the chief executives of the agencies are not accountants and are not technically sound in financial issues.

“I also want to encourage the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to continue to do their job. They are doing it very well.

“For those of us coming into government by 2023, we have learned and we have seen the pitfalls and banana peels lying everywhere.

“We must be careful of the kind of contracts we award. We must make sure that what belongs to the people is given to them,” he said.

Sura commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the electronic transmission of results.

He said that the deployment of BVAS in the Edo and Anambra States governorship elections, as well as the recent by-election in Plateau, was commendable.

“I want to encourage the INEC to do more and what they have done is okay. There may be some commas here and there. I believe the chairman will be looking out for where they need to improve on.

“It is something that is so cheering that we know that definitely if it is done perfectly, we will have better elections come 2023.”

On the possibility of PDP winning Plateau in 2023, Sura said that it was as high as 95 per cent.

He said the PDP was the pride of every Plateau son and daughter as they were eagerly waiting its return.