Insecurity In Nigeria: Southeast Governors Endorse Community Policing

Governors of the Southeast geopolitical zone in Nigeria on Wednesday threw their weight behind the community policing initiative to tackle the growing insecurity in the country.

Concise News reports that the governors align with the Federal Government on Community Policing.

The governors made their position known at the end of the South-East Security Summit held in Enugu with the theme, ‘Strategic Partnership for effective Community Policing in the South East Geo-Political Zone.’

Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, who chairs the South East Governors’ Forum, read the position of the governors at the end of the summit organised by the Nigeria Police Force, stating that they were satisfied with the strategies for the implementation of the community policing programme in the zone.

Umahi said: “We reached a satisfactory and acceptable decision and agreement.

“The IG’s presentation was not different from “our neighbourhood watch, our vigilante operation and forests guard, the herdsmen and farmers peace community among others.

“When we saw that this is totally in tandem with what we are doing, we decided as your governors to embrace the initiative of community policing.”

It would be recalled that last week, when Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) appeared before the Senate, he harped on issues of Community Policing, the declining rate of moral among the rank and file of the Police force as well as the issue of welfare, with very poor working environment and accommodation.

Adamu who spoke with journalists after the meeting with the Senators, stressed the need for all hands to be on deck and that addressing security problems should be a collective effort and not to be left  to security agencies alone.

The Inspector- General of Police at the meeting had challenged state governors and Chairmen of the 774 Local Governments in the country to wake up to their responsibilities in the fight against armed banditry and other security challenges in their states and local governments.

Adamu said, “I appeared before the Senate and briefed them on the concept of community policing.

“If you can remember, last year we sensitised the country on the need to  adapt community policing in the country and the concept is to give policing back to the community, let the community take the initiative in identifying the problems that are there that can lead to the commission of crime and the we work with the community to solve the crime.

“We believe that everybody comes from a community and the community is a community you know who and who is there.

“Taking policing back to the community will help in reducing crime to the barest minimum. So I have explained the concept of community policing to the Senate which involves  partnership with communities and there are various communities. You can have traditional institutions as a community.

“You can have the National Union of Road Transport Workers as a community. You can have the media as a community and various communities that you can have partnership with. If you are talking about partnership we are talking about problem solving.

“We need to solve problems that evolve in the community. What we mean here is that we scan the community to find out what are the indices that can lead to the commission of crime or a crime that has been committed already.

“We analyze the problems and then we look for solutions and the responses that are available then we deploy resources to deal with the problems and then subsequently we re-evaluate all our responses  to see how we can adjust to solve the problem.  And in doing this,  we need to capacitate our officers so as to key into the process. This is essentially what I explained to the Senate.

“Security  issues are fluid or dynamic. At a stage where you have a rise in crimes we re-strategize and deal with them and everywhere will be stabilized. And for a period of time you will see stability in crime situation. But at an stage you will see the criminals re-strategizing and coming out to commit crime.

“What we are saying especially with the concept of Community policing is that fighting crime should not left to law enforcement agencies alone. It should not be left to security personnel alone. Everybody should be involved.

“What are the things that lead to the commission of crime? Are all issues to be dealt with by security agencies alone? No. There are other arms of government that need  to deal with State Governors, Local Government Chairmen should take up their responsibilities.

“People that are committing these crime there are reasons that make them to commit these crimes. If it is lack of employment, if it is lack of education or those issues that will require intervention by the government, the state Governor should take responsibility. Local government chairmen should take responsibility. Not that everything will be left to security agencies alone.”