Ex Parliamentarian Demands South-South Security Outfit
3 min read
Chiemeka ADINDU, Calabar
As insurgents continue to terrorise Nigerians, a pioneer Cross River state representative in the Nigerian Youth Parliament, Abuja, Kingsley lta lkpeme has called on governors in the South-South geopolitical zone to establish a security outfit to help in the fight against criminality in the region.
He said they should emulate their counterparts in other regions in setting up such outfits to ensure the safety of everyone in the area.
Ikpeme said this should be done as a proactive way of guarding the walls of the region before the activities of these miscreants become overwhelming to the leaders.
He pointed out that bandits were always making intelligent plans to outsmart security operatives, hence the need to be on guard to avoid them taking the zone unawares.
He however noted that everyone ought to join the government in the fight against insecurity by providing intelligence to security agencies.
While commending the governors in their efforts to ensure that criminality was reduced in the region, he stressed that more needed to be done to ensure that the good work already begun was not be thwarted by the miscreants.
“I want to call on leaders of the South-South to borrow a leave from their counterparts in other regions in Nigeria and set up the regional security outfit.
“You will agree with me that crimes are committed locally and we need to set up our security outfit and arrest situations because the South-South cannot afford to sit on the fence in the 21st century and watch insecurity engulf the region.
“The north has done theirs and the west have also done theirs and the South-East have done theirs too so the South-South should also key in.
“There’s no other time than now because there is a complete breakdown of public peace and order in Nigeria. We’re having banditry, kidnapping, abduction, rituals, all those things are taking place in the country in our very watch so, we cannot afford to sit on the fence.
“Peace is priceless, terror is senseless, security is everybody’s business and we must make deliberate actions, deliberate moves to reduce crime rate in our region to the bearest minimum, if not totally eradicating it so hands must be on deck.
“We must encourage local vigilantes, we must encourage community policing, we must encourage state policing also and we must also encourage regional outfit; so the South-South, knowing our peculiarity where we are situated geographically, it is very pertinent, it is very urgent for us to come out with our regional security outfit.
“So I want to call on the leaders of the South-South to come together irrespective of political affiliation, irrespective of religious or whatsoever affiliation, let us drop it, let us come together under one umbrella and let the interest of the region be paramount, let us create a South-South geographic region where we will have visitors, investors coming to live, play and work.
“Let us create a South-South that is investor’s haven and the people’s paradise, let us invest in the South-South, let us invest in security because there cannot be meaningful development in an ambiance of rancor and war”, Ikpeme stressed.
Ikpeme who is also a former Chairman, Contacts and Mobilisation Committee, National Youth Council of Nigeria urged youths in the South-South region to secure their region and desist from being used to ferment crisis.
He warned perpetrators of crime and their sponsors in the country and especially Southern part of Nigeria to desist from such acts.
He said youths are prime movers of events in any Society whether positively or negatively and could become agents of destruction when neglected. He therefore called on leaders of South-South to make conscious efforts in developing the capacity of the South-South youths and to invest in the region by building businesses as this will create jobs for the youths and reduce crime rate to the barest minimum. He commended other regions for the establishments of their security outfits.
South-East governors recently established a security outfit code-named, ‘Ebube Agu’ as part of the measures to checkmate criminal activities in the region.
