“So far, thousands of them have surrendered. We have been receiving tremendous support from Nigerian Army, Nigerian Police and DSS, and others at ensuring the success of this very process.
“Governments at state and federal level are working to establishing a sustainable framework that will ensure proper handling of this process and Mr. President has promised to support this initiative.
“The scourge of vandalisation of power and communications infrastructure in the country is unacceptable. Power and communications infrastructure play a critical role in development process and is invaluably central in the achievement of a sustainable growth and development in the country.
“They are bridge between the government and the governed in line with the principles of participatory democracy. Insurgents sometimes in January this year planted explosives devices and detonated them on some of the high tension wires supplying electricity to the state, leading to the power lines. This culminated to the darkness being experienced in the past months. This has been a harrowing situation, especially for those who depend on constant electricity for their livelihoods.
“After the first destruction of the power lines, we mobilized resources to effect necessary repairs both at the Federal and state level. After spending millions of Naira, the excitement was short lived as the insurgents, 24 hours later destroyed the repaired lines along with other facilities which subjected the people to despair and hopelessness.
“At the initial stage, the state government alerted the federal authorities of the destruction of the power lines with the imperative of effecting immediate repairs in order to restore regular power supply to the state.
“Since it is virtually impossible to provide 2 protection to power lines in the state or any other part of the country, it has become a matter of technological imperative for the Federal government to look into the possibility of deploying technology to protect physical infrastructure.
“Our citizens should also be sensitized so that they will have moral obligation to protect all government infrastructure in their domain, in view of the huge investment the federal government is making in Rehabilitation of neglected infrastructure and construction of new ones across, the task should not be left for the federal government alone, it is a collective responsibility.”
