TELL Magazine

Managing Director of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Askia Ogieh, has applauded Governor Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa for initiating the process for the setting up a security outfit to protect lives, property, and businesses in the state. Askia, in a statement in Warri, Tuesday, described the move as a bold, practical and people-oriented decision, which has been met with overwhelming endorsement by Deltans.

Congratulating the Governor for living up to his vow to lead from the front line, the DESOPADEC boss urged the Delta State House of Assembly and all stakeholders charged with the task of mid-wifing ‘Operation Delta Hawk’ to work assiduously towards its success. According to him, “As a businessman, community leader, politician and now Managing Director of a special intervention agency to improve the livelihood of people in the oil-producing areas in Delta State, I have had a long, deep and robust knowledge and encounter with the state of security not just in my state, but the entire country.

“Security or lack of it is the major plank on which the development of any society is built and, over the years, our society, our country has been on a steady descent towards anarchy due to rising insecurity. Days back, our Governor, His Excellency, Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, initiated the process for the setting up of a security outfit to protect lives, property and businesses in Delta State. The announcement has been met with overwhelming endorsement by the good people of and all residents in the state.

“For too long, our people have been hounded, harassed and killed by criminal elements, both home grown and immigrants, without adequate succour from the Police and other federally controlled security agencies. For a state that is in a hurry and with a concerted programme to develop, the high level of insecurity had become the most important cog in the wheel of progress. I whole-heartedly welcome our governor’s decision and join the teeming Deltans to applaud him on the bold, practical and people-oriented decision.

“Operation Delta Hawk is a project whose time has come. The gradual overrunning of our communities by criminal elements just has to be halted and reversed. Crime is local and the solution is, logically, local. The Federal Police is too thinly spread, too thinly manned and too detached to effectively secure all the states. Only ‘Operation Delta Hawk’ has the capacity to tackle the security challenges in our communities.

“I urge the Delta State House of Assembly, all persons charged with the task of mid-wifing ‘Operation Delta Hawk’ and all stakeholders to work assiduously towards rolling out Operation Delta Hawk. I congratulate the Governor for living up to his vow to lead from the front line, like a true and focused general.”