Okowa Inaugurates Two Committees on Community Policing

Few days after announcing plans to establish an independent joint security outfit for the state, the Delta State Government has taken another step to kick-off community policing as Governor Ifeanyi Okowa yesterday inaugurated two committees on community policing.

He noted that the task of securing lives and property or reducing crime to the barest minimum in any given society was too all-inclusive and cumbersome to be left to the police and other security agencies alone.

They are the State Community Policing Advisory Committee (SCPAC) and the State Community Policing Committee (SCPC).

At the ceremony in Asaba, attended by stakeholders, including the Nigeria Police, the Army, traditional rulers, religious leaders, lawyers, the media and community leaders, Okowa said the move was in response to yearnings of citizens for an effective local policing machinery to arrest growing security challenges in the state.

He expressed the hope that the committees would deepen the security architecture in the state by complementing the efforts of the police and other security agencies to promptly thrash out security issues before they impacted negatively on the communities and the environment.

Okowa said, “The last six weeks or so have been very tasking and challenging, not just with the existential threats posed by the COVID-19 global pandemic but also of emerging security risks confronting the various federating units.