Prince Emeka Eze is the running mate to the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in the November 16 Anambra State governorship election, Dr. Infeanyi Ubah. He spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU on the party’s preparation for the poll.
What are the issues that will shape the governorship election?
Well, in this race, there are four major political parties on the field. We have the Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In all these platforms, Dr. Parick Ifeanyi Ubah and my humble self are on the platform of the Labour Party. Prior to this time, I was in the PDP. But the reason why I have not continued with the PDP is because we need to make a change in Anambra State. And the time has come for us to create a breaking point where we turn the virtues of Anambra State to become positive, so that the people of the state would benefit from governance. At this point, Anambrarians look upon the government as thieves and as people who are not tactful. And definitely, the only political party that can deliver, based on positive and veritable party manifesto, is the Labour Party. And as you can see, other political parties are falling apart; they are in shambles. There is intense altercation, internal wrangling, court processes, which are unending. You cannot build Anambra State from a position of war, altercation, and indefinite court processes. Anambra State can only be built from a position of peace and tranquility. That is what Labour Party brings to the table. And that is why we are there to make a change.
What is the prospect of the Labour Party at the poll ?
It speaks for itself. First and foremost, the grace of God is heavily over the ticket of Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah. The hand of God has manifested all over by making sure that the path to victory is clear. While other political parties are tearing themselves apart, we are touching the lives of Anambrarians. We are touching the lives of voters. We are doing so many things for them and they are appreciating it. And there is, no doubt, that we have been on the field campaigning for a very long time. And there’s no other way you can send your message to the people, apart from campaigning. When you are in the court fighting and abusing one another on the pages of newspapers, the type of message you send to the voters is that you are not ready for the election. But we have sent our manifesto, the things we want to do for Anambra State, to the voters. How we want to alleviate poverty and how we want to develop Anambra State. These are the virtues going positively for us. And those virtues are keeping us in the lead and we will continue to maintain that lead till the election day.
The major problems affecting Anambra are unemployment and insecurity. How do you intend to slove them, if elected?
The first thing we want to do in Anambra State is to create comfort. And for us to create comfort, there are three entities in creating comfort. The first is to provide security and to make sure that the life of our people and their property, their wealth, are safe. The second is to create jobs. That is why we are going to embark on industrial revolution. The third is to make sure that there is sufficient food for Anambrarians to keep them well and healthy. The first thing in our eight-point agenda is combating insecurity. And we want to do that in a way that would create positive gains. We have heard other candidates talk about how they are going to fight crime. But to tell you the honest truth, it will not work.
All it will do is to amplify insecurity in Anambra State. But the innovative techniques we are going to bring on board will douse the psychological tension of insecurity and clear all the insecurity parameters in Anambra State. We have a two methods of challenging it. We have the human coefficient and the structural coefficient. In the human coefficient, we want to train security agencies and the training would be continuous, so that they would be abreast. They would have the knowledge of new technologies and techniques in combating crime. And we are going to do that within Anambra State, even if it means brining experts and people who are versed in impacting training on special weapons and tactics and rapid response techniques. Second, we are going to review in Anambra State the salary scale of the security agencies because Anambra has been tagged as one of the high crime zones or flash points in the country. And you cannot expect a policeman working in a flash point to be earning the same emolument as the other working in a quiet sector. So, we are going to add something to the police package to encourage them and let them know they have come here for an assignment. In our team of rapid response policemen are policemen specially trained in special weapon and anti-crime tactics. These people are going to combat crime at any time of the day and at any place in Anambra State.
They are going to be on the road 24 hours searching for crime, seeking for criminals and being equipped to flush them out. We are also going to give them a special package for that round the clock duty that they are going to be doing. Now, we are also going to introduce an incentive package, which will come in quarterly and at times, half yearly for police officers that have shown remarkable performance and professionalism in fighting. So, we will have that gift or that incentive package, which would be detailed for a group of police officers or officer or security agent that has excelled above others. This will endear other security agents to try and also become exemplary and to perform in a professional manner so that they can have a chance of winning that incentive package. Apart from that, we are going to develop community policing whereby, in every square metre of any community, we will have a minimum of two community policing agents, who are civilians living within the community that have been trained on how to detect crime and how to inform security agencies to come and assist to apprehend criminals. So, they would live among our people, but they would be trained intensely on how to dig out criminal tendencies living within the community.
What are other measures, especially medical insurance?
We are going to introduce a special medical insurance package that takes care of the health of security agents and their families. Before now, be equipped and manned by trained personnel, who will have the eye of detecting crime and also narrowing, if a security man gets shut in the field, he has to take care of himself. So, it has created a withdrawal effect that, once police and security agents are in the field and they hear a gun shut from a criminal or an armed robber, they tend to run away because nobody wants to take a bullet knowing that you are going to run the cost of treating yourself. So, that medical insurance package will ensure that security agents, who have been traumatised in the line of duty, will get treated free of charge as well as taking care of their families. So, they don’t have anything to worry regarding the health and welfare of their dependants. So, these are the things we are going to do to create encouragement and create sufficient enabling factor for these security agents to bring out themselves to secure Anambra State. On the structural component, we are going to introduce vehicular instruments-pickup trucks, bullet proof cars and armoured personnel carrier to fight crime. We are going to ensure that any police or security agent in the field has full protection by wearing a low sarvica helmet and body armour. This will reduce the trauma incidence of security agents who have gone out to the field to fight crime.
Other things we are going to do is that we are going to provide them with every accessory for fighting crime, which will include special weapons, special crime detection equipment, infra red equipment for fighting crime in the night, and high beam long distance searchlight. We are also going to have two special helicopters that would be patrolling the area view of Anambra State to monitor criminal tendencies and suspicious movements from the air. Most importantly, we are going to institute a forensic laboratory, which will be the first of its kind to carter for the whole of the southeast and southsouth. The forensic laboratory would be equipped and manned by trained personnel who will have the eye of detecting crime and also narrowing down the cost of some sort of crimes. Finally, we are going to use innovative, modern telecommunication equipment. The telecommunication equipment is a phone.
The phone is going to be a wonder phone, which would do every single thing your normal mobile phone would do-make calls, send out text, receive all sorts of messages, but it will have a dedicated security button. What we call the alert button, which, if you are in a situation where you feel that you are being harassed or there is an intending attack on yourself, you press the alert button or the security switch. That switch would send out alert signal to every security agents in that sector. And it will not only send out that signal that somebody is under red alert, but it would instruct every security agent to move towards the area that that alert button was ignited.
