SAN FRANCISCO, November 03, (THEWILL) – The Minister for Transport, Senator Idris Umar, said weekend in Gombe that stakeholders in the transport sector would soon meet to fashion out more measures to prevent future attacks on bus and taxi terminals in the country.
Umar also disclosed that the Federal Government has deployed more sophisticated weapons and military personnel to the North-East as the battle against Boko Haram insurgents continues.
The Minister, who was in Gombe on a condolence visit following Friday’s insurgents’ attack on a bus station belonging to the State Transport Company, said he would soon summon all the Commissioners of Transport in all the 36 states of the country to discuss the latest insurgency threats on motor parks.
“As the Minister of transport, I intend to summon an emergency meeting of Commissioners of Transport in all states of the country so that we discuss and adopt strategies on how best to safeguard our motor parks. Just recently, we concluded a meeting of the National Transport Council, where this same issue of safety and security were addressed,” Idris said.
Describing the Gombe bus station attack as one of the worst incidents in the annals of the history of the state, the minister assured the people of the Northeast region that the five-year-old insurgency would soon become history.
Umar disclosed that better and sophisticated equipment, weapons and security personnel had been moved to the North-East to check the activities of the insurgents, saying government was deeply concerned about the plights of the affected people.
“Insurgency wise, government is doing a lot in the area of deployment of troops to the areas and then as well as the deployment of relevant and necessary equipment to fight this insurgency. By the grace of God, in no distant future, this thing will be over,” he said.
The Minister who visited the scene of the incident and both the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe and the state Specialists Hospital, where survivors of the attack were being treated during the trip, expressed gratitude to the medical personnel for the attention they were giving the patients
