Although he did not disclose the details of the agreement reached, he assured the nation that the implementation would start in May.

Fayemi disclosed this in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting of the technical committee on the matter chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The governor then appealed to the striking judiciary workers to return to work in the interest of the nation.

However, the National Treasurer of JUSUN, Jimoh Musa said the union had not met with the governors.

He said, “I know they invited some Chief Judges and met with them, but they have not come to the table to discuss with us. We have never met with them, we don’t know their faces. So are mischievous and I am surprised that leaders that we are supposed to emulate will come, saying things that are not right. We are meeting again tomorrow (Tuesday) with the Minister of Labour and I have been told that they are sending a representative, maybe the DG of the Nigerian Governors Forum. But until this moment, we have not met with them, even for one day. They have never called us as JUSUN to discuss with us. Let’s us sit down and discuss this thing, it is a constitutional matter and we can resolve this thing.”

President Muhammadu Buhari made this known to members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) at a security meeting held on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Femi Adesina, special adviser on media and publicity to the President, gave an update on the details of the meeting during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“The promise the President made was that in terms of equipping, more equipment were being procured – some had come and there was the need to train our forces to use them and more will come,” he said.

The President, however, appealed to the governors to work with the traditional and local authorities in their various territories to tackle the security challenges across the country.

He stressed the need for a smooth relationship between the state authorities and the grassroots leaders to boost intelligence gathering.

The President, who stated that intelligence gathering was key to the nation’s security, stressed that people must be discouraged from sabotaging the efforts of the security forces.

“He (Buhari) also encouraged the governors to work in close contact with the traditional authorities and the local community because intelligence is a big part of the thing and he encouraged them that they should work together with the traditional authorities and the local communities so that those who sabotage efforts of the military, particularly through giving information to the other side, can be encouraged to give adequate information to the military so that the security situation can be tackled,” Adesina said during the political show.

The Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, disclosed this in a communiqué after its 22nd teleconference meeting on Friday in Abuja.

The communique explained that Buhari would particularly speak in the light of the attack on rice farmers in Borno State.

It also said that the governors endorsed two proposals on infrastructure development funds’ loans.

According to the communique, the NGF agreed to: “direct State Attorneys-General to review the Water Resources Bill and send their input to the NGF secretariat as quickly as possible and to support the planned “COVID-19 Testing Week’ to be launched by the Presidential Task Force.”

They pledged to work with their various State Internal Revenue Services to ensure seamless implementation of the plan.

This was contained in a communique signed by the Chairman of the NGF, Kayode Fayemi, at the end of the 16th teleconference meeting of the forum, held on Tuesday.

The communique read in part “All-State governments through their Internal Revenue Services will ensure the seamless implementation of tax relief programmes for businesses and taxpayers. These programmes which were released in some States since March 2020 are designed to reduce the financial burden of taxpayers in the country up till 2021 in some cases”

The Chairman of the NGF, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, disclosed this in a statement released to the journalist on Thursday, after the forum’s 10th COVID-19 teleconference meeting held on Wednesday.

The Forum reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring that offenders face the full weight of the law.

They also instructed each governor to create sex offenders register in their states.

Governors agreed to, “Declare a State of Emergency on Sexual and Gender-based Violence. Governors strongly condemned all forms of violence against women and children and committed to ensuring that offenders face the maximum weight of the law;

“Call on State Governors that have not already domesticated relevant gender-based protection laws to domesticate the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, the Child Rights Act and the updated Penal Code to increase protection for women and children and ensure speedy investigation and prosecution of perpetrators in addition to creating a sex offenders register in each State to name and shame,” the statement revealed.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Ajibola Basiru, made this known via Twitter on Thursday noting that the House of Representatives faulted the NGF for asking the federal parliament to step down the bill, saying “federal parliament does not legislate for states”.

Basiru further expressed that, “As to inquiry on what is the position of the Senate to the newspaper report on the call for suspension by Governors of the Infectious Disease Bill.

“The Senate does not act on newspaper reports. When and if a communication is received by the Senate from appropriate channel, it will be considered democratically in accordance with the procedure of the Senate and a decision taken by majority as is expected in a democracy.

“The Bill is yet to be read the second time at which stage, by Senate Orders, the principles of the Bill will be discussed and a decision taken on whether the Bill should proceed for further legislative processes.

“The governors may engage the Senators in their respective states on whatever objections they have on the Bill so that it may be taken up on their behalf by the Senators from their states during the second reading.”

InisideOjodu recalls that the NGF had through a statement asked the National Assembly to step down the Bill to allow for consultations with state government and stakeholders.

The NGF Chairman and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi disclosed this in a statement after a virtual meeting of the governors on Wednesday.

According to the NGF Chairman, the governors expressed that for a bill of such nature to be passed by the lawmakers, the bill must create an avenue for consultations with the state governments and other stakeholders.

Fayemi noted that to this end a committee set up, comprising the Governors of Katsina, Sokoto, and Plateau States – Aminu Masari, Aminu Tambuwal, and Simon Lalong, to lead a meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on the proposed bill.

Part of the statement reads: “The Forum resolved that the Bill should be stepped down until an appropriate consultative process is held, including a public hearing to gather public opinion and concerns.

“In the light of this, the Forum established a Committee comprising the Governors of Katsina, Sokoto, and Plateau to lead a consultative meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on the proposed Control of Infectious Diseases Bill, 2020.

“The NGF Secretariat was also mandated to comprehensively review the Bill and its implication on States.”

This agreement to implement the two weeks lockdown was reached after a meeting on Wednesday April 22, between member governors chaired by NGF Chairman Kayode Fayemi, as the disease has now spread to 25 states in Nigeria.

The press statement released by the 36 state governors reads; “In order to strengthen coordinated implementation of necessary public health recommendations across states, governors resolved to set up COVID-19 committees at the regional level, headed by their state Commissioners of Health. Regional committees will continue to interface with the State Task Force Committees on COVID-19 already established in each state. The forum also held a minute’s silence in honour of all Nigerians who have lost their lives from coronavirus, especially health workers who were in the front lines of the pandemic. Members also conveyed their condolence to President Muhammadu Buhari and the people of Borno State on the passing of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, who passed away on 17th April 2020 in the line of duty to the country. The NGF Chairman briefed the forum on the rapidly evolving situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and coordination efforts with the Federal Government, multilateral and bilateral partners and the private sector through the Coalition against COVID-19 (CACOVID). With over 25 states now affected by the spread of the virus and increasing evidence of community transmission, state governors called for the decentralisation of the COVID-19 response as the best chance of nipping in the bud the spread of the virus in communities. Following an update from the NGF Secretariat on the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, members expressed concern over the rising spread of the virus among health workers and resolved to work with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to ensure that health workers are adequately provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and are constantly traineod on the use of protective gears. The forum also received briefing from the governors of Lagos, Bauchi, Oyo and Ogun states who shared their experiences and lessons from the fight against COVID-19. Governors unanimously agreed to the implementation of an inter-state lockdown in the country over the next two weeks to mitigate the spread of the virus from state to state. Only essential services will be permitted. Lastly, the forum congratulated the Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, who after nearly four weeks of testing positive and observing very strict medical regime, has now received two consecutive negative test results for the coronavirus,”

NAN reports that NGF Vice Chairman and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal gave the advice while fielding questions from newsmen at the end of the forum meeting held on Wednesday night in Abuja.

He advised the federal lawmakers to respect the views of Nigerians on the bill.

“I am not sure I have heard any governor come out to say he is in support of death penalty for hate speech.

“I believe the National Assembly should hold a public hearing on that bill, so that due process of lawmaking is followed, so that the views of Nigerians not just the governors will be well captured on that bill.

“They should respect the views of Nigerians in whatever may be the direction of debate and the eventual passage or otherwise of that bill,” Tambuwal said.

Chairman of the NGF, and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi stated this while briefing State House correspondents after the expanded security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and Security heads at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Fayemi backed by six other governors from the six geo-political zones said that while some governors were advocating for State police because of the peculiar security challenges facing their states others didn’t deem it necessary because of the financial implications.

He said that the NGF will take a holistic view of the involvement and come out with a position on it. He also stated that the $1 billion approved from the Excess Crude Account to fight insecurity had been disbursed among the security agencies, though he said it was not enough to tackle the security challenges.

The NGF boss who said the meeting was on the instance of the governors said it dwelt primarily on insecurity ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, insurgency, militancy among others.

Fayemi said there will be a special meeting of National Economic Council, NEC, which is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to take position on the myriads of security problems in order to give confidence to the citizenry. Explaining on the essence of the meeting, he said, “The meeting was at our instance as governors of the 36 states collectively.

It has to do with the security situation in the country, our concerns about what is going on all across the nation. “We had a very fruitful meeting with Mr. President. Of course, he was not oblivious of the challenges, he gets security reports on daily basis, he understands what the issues are.

“But we felt as chief security officers in our respective states, it is also important for us to at least keep Mr. President abreast of the enormity or the challenges we are facing and also highlight the concerns of our citizens across the board about rural banditry, farmers/herders clashes, Kidnapping, militancy in the Delta, insurgency, and cultism.

“So we discussed extensively all of these issues and looked at the various ways that we felt as governors we could assist Mr. President as the Commander-in-Chief to curb these issues. Of course, we were able to in the first instance look at the nexus between our economic challenges and the security challenges as well. And the importance of tackling the causes of crime not just crime on its own.”