INSECURITY: Ohanaeze disagrees with South East Governors on Community Policing, insists on operation Ogbunigwe
Contrary to the adoption of Federal Government proffered community policing by the South East Governors, the apex Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo has a different idea in mind.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo in concert with some religious leaders on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to allow the South-East to establish their security outfit to be known as Operation Ogbunigwe.
This is just as the governors of the zone adopted the community policing programme of the Nigeria Police Force for the zone.
The two parties spoke at the end of South-East Security Summit held in Enugu with the theme, ‘Strategic Partnership for effective Community Policing in the South East Geo-Political Zone.’
The Chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi, who read the position of the governors at the end of the summit organised by the Nigeria Police, said 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.”
On the contrary, the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, appealed to the Federal Government to allow the South-East to establish their own security to take care of their challenges and peculiarities.
Nwodo said, “Mr IGP, our farms have been devastated and the herders that devastated our farms carry AK-47 rifles. You cannot be talking about community policing when the people you want to supervise, you do not understand their language.
“Your legal architecture doesn’t take into consideration that our governors, by the constitution, are the chief security officers of their various states, and this gives them the responsibility to protect the lives and property of their citizens. So when you begin to talk about recruitment, with the commander and control, and you do not share with the governors and representatives at the local areas this command and control and recruitment, this exercise is dead on arrival.”
Addressing the stakeholders on community policing programme, the Inspector General Police, Adamu said, “The community policing model is one that will draw on the legal opportunities provided by the Police Act for the engagement of special constables who will be engaged as community policing officers under the coordination of the Nigeria Police Force toward evolving a community-focused policing architecture.”
Recall that the South West had founded Amotekun, which is at present being given legislative backing across the South West States to manage the security challenges in their geopolitical zone.
In the same vein, the North also floated their own zonal security architecture, Shege-ka-fasa though has been faced with resistance from some Northern leaders and elders.
Speaking recently during the commemiration of the victims of violent attacks in Jos, the Sultan had attributed the spate of insecurity in the country to elites breakdown.
He said: “Our elites have failed us, they didn’t lead us very well,” he said. “We are very worried about the level of insecurity in Nigeria, but we are more worried about our homes, the North.”
He had also rejected Northern Security outfit describing a cheap political goal, advising them to call the youths to order.
