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Traditional rulers engagement changing dynamics – Gov Sule
From Abubakar Abdullah, Lafia
Security challenge is among the major challenges bedeviling many societies and nasarawa state is not exception.
Years back, the state had experienced security challenges in the form of communal clashes like the wild Ombatse, Igbira/Bassa crisis, farmers/herders conflict, youth restiveness such as cultism and unnecessary protests over particular agitation among others.
Security agencies have worked hard in confronting and tackling the menace to the extent that many residents of the state saw the return of peace in different communities across the state.
Since then, the state continues to experience peace even though some residents described it as fragile due to pockets of criminal activities such as kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, communal clashes as well as farmers/herders conflict.
Recently, there were kidnapping of some residents including the Akwanga Local Government Chairman Safiyanu Isa Andaha, a senior custom officer, Adamu Umar, state chairman of butchers association, younger brother to Abdullahi Yakubu Maidoya, the Gubernatorial Candidate of New Nigeria National Party in the State, Hassan Yakubu and several others.
Also in late June, tension mounted in the Southern Senatorial Zone, following clashes between Alago and Tiv farmers over land dispute along Nasarawa/Benue border Communities.
Citizenship Daily gathered that the crisis erupted when a dead body of an Alago young man was allegedly found along Keana/Guma border of Nasarawa and Benue states.
This development angered Alago youth in Keana and made them to launch attack on Tiv settlements after allegedly gathering that the young man was killed by the Tiv farmers resulting in the death of two persons with scores injured and houses burnt.
The clashes forced hundreds of Tiv farmers in the affected border communities displaced by the attacks to take refuge in Lafia, the state capital and other areas such as Kadarko, Daudu and Makurdi, in Benue state.
The spokesman of Nasarawa State Police Command, Ramhan Nansel, who confirmed the skirmishes in Lafia, said the crisis in Keana had claimed the lives of two while five persons were critically injured.
According to the PPRO, heavy security presence had been deployed to the area, stating that normalcy was beginning to be restored.
“The Commissioner of Police has condemned the attack and ordered a manhunt for the assailants” the PPRO said.
Disturbed by the development, the Minister of State for Police Affairs, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, met with stakeholders from communities across the 13 local government areas of Nasarawa State in a bid to strengthen community policing and tackle the issues of criminality in the state.
Speaking in Lafia during the Renewed Hope Agenda Citizens Town Hall Engagement tagged “Community Policing: Building A Safer Nigeria Together”, the minister said the agenda aimed to implement a community policing strategy, designed based on local peculiarities and considerations with the full participation of members of the various communities.
She further explained that the ministry in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development had initiated a strategic branding campaign to cultivate a positive and contemporary image for the Nigeria Police Force.
She said, “Today’s town hall is a reflection of the significant shift in our approach to policing. As you may be aware, Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 puts the security and welfare of our people as the government’s priority.”
“The Constitution, the Police Act of 2020, and the National Security Strategy go further to position the Nigeria Police Force as the lead in internal security.”
“As a responsible government, therefore, Mr President, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has placed security at the centre of the administration’s eight priorities, and we have commenced the implementation of the Renewed Hope Police Agenda, which will ensure that our police force is strategically positioned to fulfil its mandate.”
Also speaking, the Inspector-General of Police, who was represented by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Dasuki Galadamci, said the efforts being made by the Force were geared towards ensuring quality service delivery and the tracking down of criminal elements across the state and Nigeria at large.
He explained that without safety and security, there will be no meaningful development.
“We have decided to use local solutions to solve our local problems. Community policing is a strategy and we have adopted it to tackle security issues in communities,”
Earlier, the National Vice-chairman of the Police Community Relations Committee, Otuonunyo Kenneth, urged the members of the public to always support the police in every way possible to carry out their assignments, noting that inadequate manpower was a major challenge affecting their operations.
“We all know in this country that the police are understaffed. They work 24 hours a day to provide security for the people. They need all our support and encouragement. “We should always correct them in love because they are making a lot of sacrifices to provide security for the people,” he said.
Governor Abdullahi Sule, while welcoming dignitaries attending the event from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and other parts of the country pledged the state government’s commitment to continue to support the police with necessary logistics to carry out their responsibilities without any hitches.
He said his administration had expanded the community participation through traditional council in the security council of the state as well as having a network of intelligence from across all communities in the state which allows security architecture to be proactive in dealing with treat before it’s occurrence.
Governor Sule noted that while the state security council believes that it’s strategies have largely effective outcomes, he maintained that “there is significant hope for improvement that would provide crucial platform to explore ideas, gather valuable insight and strengthen collective approach to ensuring the safety and secure Nasarawa state.”
He admitted that “the state in terms of security, there are fundamentals that supposed to challenge the security operations such as diverse communities that are rapidly expanding and therefore shrinking communal lands for agriculture, significant mineral deposits that are of attraction to so many interest nationally and internationally as well as the state proximity to the federal capital territory which put pressure on us to host a large number of workers working in fct including Fulani community”.
“Despite all these complexities, we’ve shown great resilience to manage and create stable and secure environment through our collective effort strategy initiative.”
Governor Sule further expressed confidence that under the renew hope strategy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the state will witness enhance collaboration, innovative solution and stronger commitment to addressing the state and the nation unique security challenges.
He said all citizens were custodian of safety hence the need to come together to build a well resilience society.
