Benue Govt, Kukah Centre Partner On Community Security

The Kukah Centre in partnership with the Benue State government, has launched the Improving Community Security Initiatives for Accountable Service Delivery Project, which aims to strengthen local security in five states in North Central and North West zones.

At the take-off of the programme, Benue State governor, Hyacinth Alia, described the programme as a welcome development that would help the state to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the state.

He said, “we as a government, we are not resting in his oars to end the sustained attack on the farming communities” and described the founder of Kukah Centre, Bishop Hassan Kukah, as a man of integrity.

The governor commended the centre for its zeal to partner with the Benue State government through the United Kingdom Project Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRiNG) to strengthen our security laws to enable us nib in the bud security challenges bedeviling the state.

In his address, the executive director, Kukah Centre, Rev. Fr. Atta Barkindo, explained that they were in Benue not to change the existing security laws but to engage with the government, traditional rulers, community groups, security and other stakeholders on how “we can strengthen these laws in areas the people feel need improvement.”

The project manager, the Kukah Centre, Terseer Bamber, named the five states to implement the project as Benue, Kaduna, Katsina, Plateau and Sokoto.

He said, “The SPRING initiative is a United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) programme implemented by Tetra Tech International Development to help in securing communities affected by insecurity and as well help them on the issues of climate change”

On the concept of the SPRING Programme, the team lead, Dr. Ukoha Ukiimo, said it focuses on the initiatives of government, security agencies and community groups, women and girls to systematically address issues that affect their operation and the participation in governance and all peace and social processes to enable women participate effectively in community governance to access socio economic opportunities.

“The focus is on promoting peace and stability and to also promote resilience to the challenges of climate change; we also work to help government institutions, security agencies as well as community groups to address the issues that escalate conflict to violence,” he said.

In a remark, the team lead British High Commission Graham Gass commiserated with the state government, the Tor Tiv and the people of the state over the recent Yelwata killings, adding that SPRING was a product of the growing concern of conflict, insecurity and fatality in Nigeria.

He said, “There is no development in the atmosphere of chaos, without peace no country or state can go far, peace is like water, because without water no human being can go far.”

The chairman of the House Committee on SDGs and Donor Agencies and member representing Guma State Constituency, Peter Uche, lamented politicians’ use of insecurity and humanitarian crisis facing the state as their campaign strategy to win elections and afterwards abandon the people.

The Tor Lobi 1, Chief Moses Anageende, who decried the non-inclusion of traditional rulers in the making of security laws, called on the international community and government at all levels to live up to their responsibility of securing communities to enable displaced persons return to their ancestral homes.