By Samuel Oyadongha

YENAGOA—BAYELSA State governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, has called on the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government to stop politicizing national security.

•Gov Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa

He said the inability of President Muhammadu Buhari to personally take charge of the nation’s security and engage critical stakeholders on national security  has made some APC leaders to politicize security.

The governor, who condemned the recent killings across the country, in a statement, warned that the country would cease to have a future if the Federal Government failed to urgently unite the people of Nigeria to avert the nation-wide senseless killings.

Dickson, in the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Francis Agbo, accused some APC chieftains of taking advantage of the dysfunctional federal structure and the imperfect Nigeria structure to hijack the security architecture to torment innocent citizens for their selfish ends leading to national insecurity.

The governor said the wind of insecurity blowing across the nation and particularly the upsurge  in herdsmen/farmers clashes were not unconnected to perceived politicization of security by the Federal Government and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to personally handle security matters as well as engage state governors with a view to knowing their specific challenges in all the states.

According to him,  the President should call  his party leaders especially, those in Bayelsa State to  order; to desist from sponsoring insecurity in the state.

He said: “These APC leaders exploit the fact that Mr. President is not personally involved in the handling of national security to breach national peace and security. They know that he is not in charge of the critical issues of national security because he is not personally handling them the way he should. So they take advantage of the President’s attitude and the dysfunctional Nigeria state to intimidate and blackmail  security agencies for their selfish interest and in the process, endanger the safety of lives and property of Nigerians.

“These APC leaders use the name of the President to sponsor criminals to unleash savage violence on innocent citizens. Their aim is to cause panic and force them to align with them. A case in point is in Bayelsa State where some APC leaders hide under the protection of the Federal Government to stockpile arms and ammunition to maim and kill innocent citizens just to instill fear in them.

“I have personally reported this to Mr. President and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any decisive action from him or the Federal Government. Instead of prosecuting these criminals, the Federal Government has beefed up security around them. The politicization of national security must stop for there can be no country without security.”