By; FUNMI ADERINTO, Kaduna
Kaduna State Government, led by Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufa’i has organized meeting with stakeholders to discuss issues bordering on security and other government policies of the state.
The meeting which was held on Saturday was chaired by Governor, Nasir el-Rufai at Murtala Square, in Kaduna.
el-Rufai said the meeting was to brief the stakeholders on the activities of the security operatives in the state.
According to him, so far the activities have been quite successful and incidents have reduced, while the processes are renewed for another month on shutting down of weekly markets in some areas and regulation of motorcycle taxis, popularly known as Okada.
“We are not imposing hardship on certain people, but they can see the benefits of the actions taken, we’ve gotten good suggestions from stakeholders to be used to modify some of our policies it has been a very rich and engaging conversation”.
The security agencies also briefed on the efforts and actions to be taken, adding that the meeting is hoping to continue in three months.
While speaking on the state’s Urban Renewal projects, he said it has already advanced and at the end of the month, President Muhammadu Buhari will be in the state to commission some of the projects.
“While the rest will be completed before the end of our tenure, then the administrator of our three metropolitans will take over and do the rest.
“We have done the major roads, we have to go to nooks and crannies across Kafanchan, Zaria and Kaduna so that our cities function well”, he maintained.
He further said, Kaduna is amongst states to produce new beautiful cities, Kaduna, Zaria and Kafanchan.
He said they are particularly pleased with the support from clerics on religious preaching regulatory council established on how they are all committed to ensuring they preach peace.
On national issues, the Governor appealed to the participants to create awareness among the public for them to be prepared on the possibility of hike in petroleum prices which is expected to commence from the beginning of next year.
He assured that a number of social protection programmes have been introduced by the Federal and the state governments to reduce the hardship being faced by people in the state and pledged to continue to introduce new ones to cover all the eligible people.
At the meeting, the Governor has also announced the new administrators of Birnin Gwari and Jaba local government councils.
At the the venue, issues that where discussed at the meeting were the state’s three metropolitan areas of Kaduna, Regulation of Religious preaching and update on the urban renewal project.
Others are update on public service reforms, social protection on ways to continue assisting the poorest of the poor and vulnerable groups and state of the nation.
The engagement was with the leadership of professional groups, civil societies, and senior citizens, security operative, military and para-military religious and communities leaders.
