Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, on Monday threatened to name and shame politicians who were arming and supporting criminal elements in the society.

He commended the gallantry of the security forces and their contribution to peace, security and development, but lamented that some political leaders were engrossed in comprising security in the state.

The Governor, according to a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, issued the threat while speaking at the 2018 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration in Yenagoa.

Dickson charged the leaders of the various security outfits to show the requisite courage and professionalism to take decisive measures to enforce security in accordance with the express stipulations of the Constitution.

He said that the officers and men of the military had a responsibility to identify and flush out criminal elements from the nooks and crannies of the state.

According to him, any failure and refusal to see crime fighting from a strictly professional perspective would amount to a display of lack of courage and cowardice which should not be the case.

He said: “I call for robust partnership. In this state, I will continue to kick against political leaders who use advantaged political position to compromise national and state security instead of supporting security and stability in our communities, instead of supporting the growth and development of legitimate businesses.

“I will name and shame them. I will not hesitate to do so but I will also call on the security agencies themselves to eschew cowardice. This is because it is a partnership. While we create the enabling political environment for security agencies to function, I call on security agents and their leaders to eschew cowardice.

“If you see a criminal and you cannot call him a criminal, you are a coward. If you see a criminal and you cannot go after that criminal, you are an accomplice.”

He said that commanders of the security forces tending to be politically correct would only do a disservice to society, urging them to go after the criminals across the state.

The Governor stressed that any community that failed to organise itself to flush our criminal elements such as kidnappers and pirates would be held responsible for the actions of the hoodlums.

Dickson added that he would readily support security operatives to go after any person or group of persons found to have perpetrated acts inimical to peace, progress and stability of the state.

“Any community that does not organise itself to flush out criminals who have turned those communities to their den of operation would be held responsible. Those communities and their leaders would be held responsible and should have themselves to blame.

“In this state, security agencies will have my support and full backing to bring to book any criminal. They have my support to go into any community to carry out effective and appropriate law enforcement. They would have my support to go after any criminal that kills innocent people.

“That is my duty under the constitution. I take it seriously. I call on the leadership of the security agencies to be courageous to do what is right, as anyone lacking in courage has no business wearing the proud colours of our uniform.”

Dickson also called on the political leadership to give priority to the need to ensure provision of adequate equipment to the military and other security agencies in the country.

He said that the security forces deserved to be equipped to carry out the onerous responsibility of law enforcement having volunteered their lives in the service of society.

He commended the Armed Forces and other security agencies for their contributions to the protection of the nation’s territorial integrity, and the welfare and prosperity of her citizens.

He said that those in active service should carry out their duty with a consciousness of the fact that their work to create the right environment, prosperity and development would not go in vain.

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