Removing security votes’ll cause chaos – Govs Forum
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, has said
doing away with security votes will breed chaos in the country.
Fayemi, who is the Governor of Ekiti State, said this at the quarterly
policy dialogue on accountability for security votes which held at the
auditorium of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related
Offences Commission (ICPC) in Abuja.
The event was organised by the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN).
Citing the constitution, Fayemi dismissed arguments that security
votes were illegal and added that they have been in existence since
the colonial era.
He said security votes are necessary and abolishing it will bring down
development, increase insecurity and also slow down the various
states’ response to emergencies.
“Governments all over the world have security votes but they may not
call it the same name as ours because, for obvious reasons, government
business may not necessarily be all in the public glare,” he said.
He said in his state, every transaction involving security votes are
well documented.
The governor added that the abuse of security votes in the country
would continue to be rife unless something is done to ameliorate it.
Fayemi also said the creation of state police, which he prescribed as
the antidote to the expenditure being incurred by governors, would
reduce the complaints about insecurity.
He also advocated a partnership between the NGF and the ACAN to work
out modalities that would lift the issue of security votes and its
accounting processes to meet global best practices.