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Nigeria needs community policing for effective security, socioeconomic development — Experts

Security experts at the Sixth Annual Security Converge in Calabar have asserted that community policing is key to enhanced security and socioeconomic development in Nigeria.

The three-day converge, organised by the Institute of Security and Strategic Studies (ISSS), had the theme ‘Addressing Nigeria’s security challenges: Panacea for socio-economic development’.

The conference had in attendance, officials of paramilitary organisations, academia, private and public sector, including officials of the ECOWAS Court of Justice.

In a communique at the end of the conference, read by retired ACP Paddy Ogon, the group stated that the conference sought to identify challenges bedeviling the nation’s security and devise strategies for addressing them.

Calling for high-level vigilance, the security experts noted that community policing was essential to reduce crime and criminalities, especially kidnapping.

According to them, there is a need for a strengthened Joint Taskforce, inter–agency security meetings, training and capacity building of personnel to ensure synergy.

Speaking further, the group said developing a seamless communication network amongst agencies was expedient for a national security strategy.

They appealed to the Federal Government to release political prisoners in its custody, adding that this would ensure and strengthen national integration.

“Factors responsible for separatist agitations in Nigeria include feelings of marginalisation, faulty 1999 Constitution that has not made it possible for the states to fulfill their role as component federating units.

“The nation must also deal with the issues of nepotism, poor leadership, poverty, unemployment, amongst others while ensuring the provision of basic amenities to the people,” they maintained.

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