Killings: Ortom canvasses review of ECOWAS protocol

Benue state governor, Dr Samuel Ortom, has called for the review of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocol to address Nigeria’s security challenges.
The governor, who stated this yesterday at the Benue Peoples House Makurdi during a courtesy call on him by the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Muhammed Babandede, lamented that the protocol has become a cog on the wheel of progress.
“If the ECOWAS protocol has become a cog in the progress of Nigeria, it is high time we reviewed it,” Ortom stressed.
The governor stated that even the current protocol has provisions on procedures for trans-human movement within ECOWAS member countries should strictly be followed.
He suggested that the provisions for quarantine services for livestock and prohibition of movement with arms as well as regulations that apply to human beings, should be enforced for improved security in the country.
According to him, security reports revealed that the heightened insecurity in the country was linked to foreign herdsmen who enter the country without valid documents and compliance with the other regulations.
While tasking the immigration authorities to curtail the excesses of emigrants into the country, Ortom pledged his continued support to the service for optimal performance.
He requested the recruitment of more Benue indigenes into the service, even as he promised to assist in providing land to the service for the construction of office accommodation as requested by the Comptroller General.
The Comptroller General, Babandede, expressed sympathy with the government and people of the state over the killings by suspected herdsmen and pledged the support of the service in addressing insecurity in the state.
He said he was in the state to patrol the border area at Abande in Kwande local government area with a view to checking the influx of illegal foreigners into the country.