A Civil Society Organization (CSO), Community Policing Partners (ComPPart) Foundation, has criticised the state government’s recruitment of 500 youths under the guise of community policing, saying the initiative is politically motivated and destined to fail.
Governor Umo Eno had explained that the need for effective security informed the creation of the new Ministry of Internal Security headed by a retired Army General, Koko Essien, as commissioner, who last week recruited 500 youths to complement the regular police with intelligence to curb security challenges across the 31 Local Government Areas.
But the Executive Director of the CSO, a Foundation for Justice and Peace Building in Nigeria, Saviour Akpan, has faulted the policy, describing it as “a bastardization of the community policing concept”, and prone to being politically hijacked by politicians and friends of the government.
Speaking in an interview with LEADERSHIP at his Abak Local Government office, Akpan, who noted that community policing is the most effective way of tackling insecurity in the country, argued that the recruitment of 500 youths in the state in the name of community policing is a politically motivated measure designed to fail from conception.
He said that community policing can only be effectively implemented if the community members are the ones driving it, with the law enforcement agencies acting as partners.
He said: “Recruitment of 500 vigilantes is very unfortunate. That word vigilante is outlawed, it was outlawed by the Federal Government.
“The recruitment of 500 youths in Akwa Ibom in the name of community policing is a political dimension to community policing and it’s a bastardization of the concept; It’s lack of sincerity on the part of government.
“Community policing is not a department that you need to go and recruit people to come and work on it. It is a philosophy, the values of a certain community with regards to their safety and security which makes such a community to be part of the determination of their policing priorities.
“If effectively implemented, community policing is the most effective way of tackling insecurity and it can be implemented effectively only when the communities are the ones driving it and then the different law enforcement agencies are partners.
“What Akwa Ibom State government is doing now is commercialisation of security which is not policing, because there is a difference between policing and security. Security can be commercialised, community policing can never be commercialised. Security is reactive, policing is proactive. Security is not pragmatic, policing is pragmatic; it is practical in nature.”
While noting that there can never be effective security arrangements where there is lack of membership and commitment by the host community, Akpan reasoned that another crime is going to be committed in the course of deploying the 500 personnel in the state.
“In fact, another crime is going to be committed in the course of deploying these 500 people to solve a crime and that is labour. The company that is providing these personnel will now have their clients like all these eateries, they will be deployed there, this is a jamboree. What I am advocating for is that first and foremost, government should not wake up and create a problem for members of the public”.
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