The South-South Governors’ Forum, on Thursday, resolved to form a regional security outfit to check crimes and criminality in their region.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta made the announcement to newsmen at the end of their meeting in Government House, Asaba.
Others in attendance were Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, Douye Diri of Bayelsa and Godwin Obaseki of Edo.
Okowa explained that the regional security outfit would help address the numerous security challenges in their respective states.
He said: “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.”
Okowa said that the forum agreed that the BRACED an acronym for (Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta) Commission would work out the modalities for the security outfit.
“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 headquarter in River State.”
In the South-West, nearly all the State Houses of Assembly have passed the regional security outfit bill (Amotekun) into law.
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