Obaseki harps on stakeholders collaboration to fight crime

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has harped on stakeholders and community collaboration to combat the scourge of crime in the society.

Obaseki who also expressed the need for communities to share information to deal with the issue of insecurity across the state with security agencies, said that security must be localised if it would ever be effective.

The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Comrade Philip Shaibu, stated this on Moday in Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state during an enlarged town Hall Meeting to find a lasting solution to the security situation in the area.

He reiterated that his administration believed that security must be localised to guarantee the safety of lives and properties, hence the setting up of a security network to assist the police in the fight against crimes and criminality across the state.

Governor Obaseki maintained that community policing would give more sense of security to the local dwellers adding that such arrangement would integrate the mainstream security agencies as part of the neighborhood through the exchange of vital security Information.

According to him, “efforts of the government can only yield the expected outcome when community members assume their responsibility by furnishing security agents with useful information that could lead to the arrest and persecution of these criminal elements.

“Edo state is known for its great sense of hospitality where we welcome people but some elements are trying to invade our midst because we are accommodating.

“We must collectively resist any of such attempts by aligning ourselves with the goals of promoting a strong community neighbourhood through timely information circulation”, the governor submitted.

He therefore urged members of the community to re-enact old values where government properties in their domain were protected and guarded against vandalisation.

Emphasising the importance of the masses as the real government, Obaseki posited that the elected officials of Tue state “are just leaders of the government”.

“Development in the communities are brought about by taxpayers money as such, we must claim ownership of government effort to give value to investment and avoid allowing others to destroy government properties and development in your environment”.

“When everyone guards his/her street and every community member protects the community, then the local government will be safe and once our local government is safe, we all will have a safer state, that is the essence of collaboration”, he further posited

Earlier in his remarks, the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Philip Ugbaudu, noted that indigenes of the community had a responsibility to protect their areas and appealed for useful information, stating that arrangement had been concluded to include all interested groups in the security arrangement.

“A community leader in ovia Federal Constituency and security stakeholders in Edo State have agreed to empower and equip the various vigilante groups in the area to arrest the spate of kidnappings around the Benin Ore expressway”, the top police brass disclosed.

On his part, the Coordinator, Edo State Security Network, Haruna Yusuf, said the state government had bridged the gap of quick response to security issues with the establishment of the Edo State Community Vigilante Network as an intervention to community security concerns.

Head of the various security networks in Ovia North East and other stakeholders expressed gratitude to the Edo State Government for taking security issues to their doorstep.

They also appealed to the government to strengthen the vigilante network for optimal performance.

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