#Gandollar: I Waited For Story Of Amputation – Cross River Assembly Leader

By Jonathan Ugbal

The leader of the Cross River state House of Assembly, Mr. Peter Odey (PDP Ogoja) has identified the lack of political will to implement legislations as the major cause of insecurity in the Niger Delta region and the country.

Mr. Odey said there were enough legislations to tackle the issue of insecurity but the problem was willingness to implement.

“The law is there, who is implementing it?. In northern Nigeria, we have the Sharia law. We saw a Governor receiving bribe on video. I was waiting to see the day he will be amputated. So, you see, who will enforce the laws?” Odey said in his remarks at the presentation and validation of the Cross River report on “Insecurity in the South-South states: Issues, Actors and Solutions” by the Niger Delta Dialogue secretariat on Wednesday in Calabar.

Now, a video released by Daily Nigerian newspapers in October 2018 showed Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano state receiving USD230,000 bribe from contractors.

The video was over two minutes long and according to the time stamp, was shot in 2017. A trend quickly developed on social media with Gandollar, a fusion of Ganduje and Dollars used to refer to the video.

More videos were released later on with Daily Nigerian publisher, Jafaar Jafaar testifying before the Kano state House of Assembly. He had initially, gone into hiding with his family following threats received.

However, on the issues that are leading to rising levels of insecurity, Mr. Odey said there was no balance in the way the federal government handled certain crisis in the past especially militancy.

“How many militants from Bakassi were really resettled?” he queried. “We know Tompolo, we know Ateke Tom. But, how many did we know that were settled from Bakassi?”

The report showed that contrary to public perception, Cross River state had in the recent past have more conflict fatalities than the other Niger Delta states.

He said the House of Assembly was considering amending existing legislations to ensure that once you are found with weapons and it is believed you are going to harm someone, there will be stiffer penalties than currently exists.

The Speaker of the Assembly, Eteng Jones, had in his address, sought the inputs of the public to ensure the development of an “all encompassing” legislation.