Community policing: FCT minister advocates involvement of council chairmen, traditional rulers

Date:

By Salisu Sani-Idris
Abuja, Aug. 9, 2020 The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello has called for active involvement of Area Council Chairmen and traditional rulers in the recruitment and deployment processes of community constabularies in the territory.

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Mr Anthony Ogunleye, the Chief Press Secretary to the minister, in a statement on Sunday, said Bello gave the advice when the FCT Commissioner of Police, Bala Ciroma submitted modalities for implementation of Community Policing during a security meeting in Abuja.

The minister, who chaired the meeting, called for a functional and equitable distribution of community policing volunteers across the FCT, based on the needs of the communities.

Bello used the occasion to thank heads of the various security formations in the FCT for their support in maintaining security in the territory.

“I want to acknowledge the full support we have enjoyed from your men and women in the field, either in respect of our various task forces that were established as well as your fight against crime and criminality.

“And your overall support in all aspects of our work whenever we call you to serve,” Bello said.

Earlier, Ciroma explained that following directives by the Federal Government for the engagement of special constabularies for community policing nationwide and subsequent inauguration of the FCT State Community Advisory Committee by the Minister of the FCT, the committee met and came up with modalities that would guide its implementation.

The commissioner said the main functions of the community constabularies would be crime detection and prevention, settlement of low level civil disputes and petty crimes.

He said other functions of community constabularies were criminal intelligence gathering, dissemination to the local police commanders, dealing with minor offences and social vices, assist in traffic management and school safety duties.

Ciroma also said that community constabularies would operate only within the communities in which they were recruited and were not permitted to operate outside of these locations.

He added that the police force would train the volunteers and provide them with uniforms and means of identification.

The security meeting also received a brief from the Health and Human Services Secretariat, presented by the Director of Public Health, Dr Josephine Okechukwu.

Okechukwu disclosed that the one of the major challenges facing the health authorities in the FCT was lack of adherence to health protocols by many residents of the FCT.

She also said that there were imported cases into the FCT from other states as well as from returnees from outside Nigeria.

She, therefore, called for more active involvement of area councils and traditional institutions in the fight against the coronavirus in the FCT.

The security committee meeting was also attended by the FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, the Permanent Secretary of the FCTA, Mr Chinyeaka Ohaa, the Executive Secretary of the FCDA, Malam Umar Jibrin and Chief of Staff to the Minister, Malam Bashir Mai-Bornu.

Others were the heads of the various security formations in the FCT, Area Council Chairmen, traditional and religious leaders as well as senior management staff of the FCTA.

Naija247news
Naija247newshttps://www.naija247news.com/
Naija247news is an investigative news platform that tracks news on Nigerian Economy, Business, Politics, Financial and Africa and Global Economy.

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