Kogi State Governor in North Central Nigeria, Yahaya Bello has sued for calm over the killing of Mr. Ariyo Aina in Ogga, Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State in the early hours of Saturday, saying the perpetrators of the dastardly act will not only be brought to book, “but also that government will stop on its track, this ugly trend”.
The Governor stated this in a message through his Director General of Media and Publicity, Mr Kingsley Fanwo.
He said the lives of Kogites are very important to him, hence the heavy investment he made to ensure adequate security for all inhabitants of Kogi State, insisting that those who disturb the peace of the State will be brought to justice.
“Human life is sacrosanct. The life of every Kogite is important to us as an administration. We take staunch exceptions to criminals who terrorize the lives of our people. Those who killed citizen Ariyo Aina will face justice and my Administration will roll out some policies in the coming days to mitigate possible future occurrence.
“It is our responsibility to provide security to all of our people within our territory which we have done creditably. We take responsibility for any breach of such security architecture and will make efforts to mend the cracks and continue to give confidence to our people.
“As we sympathize with the people of Ogga community and Yagba West as a whole, we wish to assure the people that we will leave no stone unturned in tracking the criminals that put an unfortunate end to the life of our citizens.
“Government has directed the State Security Adviser, Commander Jerry Omodara (Rtd) to coordinate a productive security operation aimed at apprehending the murderers as well as provide an assuring security for the people of the area.
“Government wishes to commend the promptness of the Police in going to the crime scene and the assurances we have that the culprits will be apprehended. The Kogi State Government will continue to cooperate with security agencies to provide adequate security for our people. Deployment of special forces has been done by the State Police Command to ensure those who committed the heinous crime are brought to book.
“We urge members of the public to help security agencies with useful information that could lead to the arrest of the criminals and also appeal to the people not to take laws into their hands. Government is capable of defending the people in the face of blatant and unacceptable violence against them.
“We also call on Officers and Men of Operation Total Freedom to step up patrols of our rural communities for us to further reduce criminality at that level.
“We commiserate, particularly, with the family members of Mr Ariyo and pray God to grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss”.
