By Emma Obe
Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday challenged President Muhammadu Buhari, to take charge of security in Nigeria and stop shifting it to state governors.

The governor threw the challenge during the inauguration of the 21-kilometer Odufor – Akpoku – Umuoye road in Etche Local Government Area of the state.

“The Constitution did not say that. Who is the Commander-in-Chef? Are we the governors the Commander-in-Chief? We are not the Commander-in-Chief. Mr. President. You are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You appoint the Chief of Army Staff, you appoint the Chief of Naval Staff. You appoint the Inspector General of Police and others,” the governor said.

He said if the governors are to take charge of security effectively in the states, they should be allowed to pick the commissioners of police and directors of State Security Service. “Why are we shifting the goalpost when the match is almost completed? It is not good,” he said.

Wike declared that the President must take charge of security because it is his constitutional duty. “It is not only to borrow money. “Let us also be in charge too,” added comically.

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A former Senate President, David Mark, who performed the inauguration used the opportunity of the ceremony to declare that he had withdrawn from the race for President.

Mark, who described the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as the pillar of the Peoples Democratic Party, recalled how he missed being the presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019 during the primaries of the party in Port Harcourt despite n=being a close friend of Wike.

He said, “I was very hopeful at that time because I was very close to the governor. But it didn’t work out for me. Now I am too old to run for President. I am just resting in my village now,” the former Senate President said.