New commander vows to ensure peace in Jos

Major General Oluwaseun Oshinowo, the new Commander of the military Special Task Force, STF, maintaining security in Plateau, on Monday in Jos vowed to ensure the return of peace to the troubled state.

Oshinowo made the promise when he paid a courtesy call on Gov. Jonah Jang, saying that he understood the terrain of Plateau having lived in the state since 1981.

“I’m here to work for Plateau State because I’ve settled here with my family and my two kids were born here. I’m not living in the barracks but in my own house in Bassa.

“I’m here at the bidding of the Commander-in-Chief and I am ready to work with you. I seek your cooperation so that we can bring peace back to Plateau.”

Oshinowo described Plateau as his home and said he would like his children and family to grow in a peaceful atmosphere that used to pervade the entire state in the past.

“We need to bring peace back to Plateau; we can do it and we will do it. I do tell my friends that crisis met me in Jos and crisis will leave me in Jos by God’s grace.

“Plateau used to be the envy of everybody in this country. Many of us come from other states but Jos is the best place you can stay in this country whether you believe it or not and the peace must return.”

The STF commander, however, said that he would not be able to do anything without the cooperation of Jang, his senior colleague in the military.

Responding, Jang expressed dismay at accusations that he, as an experienced military officer, had not been able to end the crisis because of the many intricacies involved.

“When a similar crisis erupted in Numan in the then old Gongola State, it didn’t take me one week to put it under. I didn’t need anybody’s permission to order the brigade commander and the head of state congratulated me for a job well done.

“But as an elected governor, the constitution has changed the position of the chief security officer of a state to that of a general without troops because all the security forces are under the president.”

Jang said that the president’s directive to the Chief of Defence Staff did not presuppose that he (Jang) had failed but that the defence chief was only being reminded by the president to come and do his work properly.

The governor, however, said that the president had not relieved him as the chief security officer of the state since it was a constitutional issue.

He said that all the security heads met regularly at the Security Council but noted that security issues agreed on at the council were not carried out by the appropriate authorities.

Nigeria loses Trade Union hosting rights

Meanwhile, following the spate of bombing in the country by Boko Haram sect, Nigeria has lost the hosting rights of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) Congress which was scheduled for Abuja from October 24 – 26, 2011.

Nigeria was granted the hosting rights in October 2010. President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade AbdulWaheed Omar, who disclosed this in a press conference yesterday said , “this congress would have brought trade unionists from across Africa to Nigeria as well as their comrades from all continents.

Unfortunately, due to the spate of bombings especially that of the United Nations House in Abuja, the hosting right has been withdrawn and is to be taken to either Cotonou, Johannesburg, Nairobi or Dakar. What this tells us is that rather than government creating more problems in the country, it should engage in problem- solving schemes”.