First Bank donates five Toyota double -cabin patrol vans to Abia state

The  fight against insecurity in Abia State was boosted at the weekend with a donation of five security Toyota double-cabin patrol vans equipped with communication gadgets by First Bank of Nigeria Plc. to the state.

The Managing Director of the bank, Bisi Onasanya, while presenting the vans to the state governor, Theodore Orji, commended the governor's efforts in checking security challenges in the state, adding that his bank also benefited from it hence: ' We are supporting your government in our own little way with these security vans'.

Onasanya called on other corporate organisations including core investors to partner with the state government to tackle its security challenges.  He pointed out that government could not do it alone.

'What First Bank has done will spur others to do something in the same direction,' he said.

He recalled a time kidnappers, armed robbers and other forms of violent criminals reigned in the state and scared away people and investors, stressing that then, economic activities were adversely affected. He added that First Bank, at present, has not less than   22 branches in Abia State even as it is currently working on two new ones.  'This is one of the ways we can support your government by partnering with you to ensure security in the state,' Onasanya said, adding: ' The security network you have put in place has enabled us to invest in the state and we, as a bank, have benefited immensely, which is why we are supporting your government in our own little way with these security vans'.

Governor Orji, in appreciation, said  that no business would develop  and  progress in a state of  insecurity of life and property, adding that his government had sustained its efforts to protect  lives and property and those of investors operating in the state.

Orji who described that period of insecurity in the state as a 'dark phase in its history,' thanked God and others that helped the state to overcome those security challenges, asserting the period 'has gone for ever.'