Date: 2017-08-22

Kwara State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed has cautioned religious and political leaders in the state against hate speeches and incitements.

Governor Ahmed who handed down this warning yesterday during a stakeholders meeting with various religious leaders, political leaders, labour leaders and members of security and executive councils at the Government House, Ilorin, cautioned opinion leaders and other members of the public against utterances which could overheat the polity.

While emphasizing the need for constructive criticism for improved governance, Governor Ahmed stressed that criticism must be separated from incitements in order to move the state forward.

On outstanding salaries at local government level, Governor Ahmed challenged serving Transition Implementation Committees, TIC, and prospective local government chairmen to show capacity to raise revenues, saying that local government councils in the state had not done enough in revenue generation.

According to him, "councils' business has moved beyond reliance on federal allocation for survival to a new level where council authorities must be resourceful by thinking outside the box to raise their internally generated revenues to augment payment of salaries and execute developmental projects".

Governor Ahmed assured the TICs that the state government would continue to give necessary support to local government councils to improve their revenues and meet their obligations.

Also speaking, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lawan Ado maintained that hate speeches would be treated as terrorism in line with the directive of Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at the recently held National Economic Council Security Summit in Abuja.

Various speakers at the meeting agreed that hate speeches must be checked in order to ensure sustainable peace in the state and Nigeria as a whole.