Insecurity: APC governors back Community Policing

Governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have all agreed to adopt Community Policing in curbing the rising insecurity in the country.


The Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) also warned Nigerians not to succumb to the latest strategy of beheading a student and killing a pastor in Adamawa state by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents as a means to cause religious war in the country.


Addressing a press conference Friday in Abuja, the Plateau state governor, who also doubles as the co-chiarman of PGF Governance Programme Steering Committee, Barrister Simon Lalong, appealed to the security agencies to go back to all the places where the insurgents were still operating, adding that the Boko Haram can not be more superior than the security agencies.


“We are all talking about community policing. That one, we (APC governors) have all agreed on it but we don’t want situation where you start doing something and the federal government will say you are doing it outside the law just like what they said about Amotekun. It is now that they are going to dialogue. Even if they are doing that it has to be within the law. So, what is within the law as far as Governors are concerned is the issue of community policing. We are all agreed on that. 


“I made a briefing in Lafia and I told them that I have been using community policing for a very long time. In Jos I have about three organizations. Three security outfits. I have the Headquarters of a Division; I have Operation Safe Haven established by the federal government for only few states at that time, and I have what is called Operation Rainbow. 


“For us, Operation Rainbow is like community policing because while Operation Safe Haven and Police are answerable to the federal government, Operation Rainbow is answerable to the Governor and it is a combination of different security organisations. 


“So, what they do is intelligence gathering and we find that very effective because if you do not understand the intelligence, you will not understand how to even nip the security situation in the bud. So, because of this intelligence, before anything happens, we know because we have an early warning system,” governor Lalong stated.


On the killing of a student in Jos and a pastor in Adamawa, Lalong said: “I take it as part of what propaganda because when they are getting to that level, they can use any means to propagate and incite people to go into killings. 


“We heard what happened in Adamawa where they killed a pastor and then they went to Plateau state and killed a student. I have been telling the people, trying to caution them because the intention is done, for people to start fighting on religious grounds. By the time you fall into it, they will come back again. When you are fighting, they will come back and start mingling with the people.


“So, it is very unfortunate when they start killing students and religious leaders. We have to keep appealing to the people. We have made strong appeal to the security agencies to go back to those places because we do not expect Boko Haram to be more superior than our security agencies.”


Governor Lalong said his committee has responsibility to design policies for implementation for good governance in APC states and once the policies are approved the governors will start talking about the implementation.


Some of the policies include; security, primary healthcare, education among others.

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