Northern Governors Embrace Community Policing

Governors of states within Nigeria’s Northern region, say they are ready to embrace community policing as a way of complimenting the efforts of the nation’s security outfits.

Chairman of Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong of Plateau State disclosed this to Journalists on Thursday, at the end of this month’s meeting of the National Economic Council, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The Governor, who gave a hint of decisions reached at Wednesday’s North-Central Security Summit in Lafia, Nasarawa State, said the region was not planning to established a regional outfit, as he gave an example of what Plateau State is already doing.

“The decisions we took were very obvious and clear; North-Central zone like any other part of the North agreed on community policing.

“In my State for instance, when I gave the view, I said I have started community policing a very long ago and we are supported by the federal government.

“We established two agencies in Plateau the State when we started having crisis. We have Operation Rainbow and Operation Safe Haven. Operation Rainbow is a coalition of security agencies, mostly with recruitment form the public, for the purpose of supplying the security organizations with intelligence reports and that is very effective.

“We have also supported that with a peace building agency which is responsible for conflict management in the State.

“The Northern region for which I am the Chairman of the Governors Forum, are not talking about a regional outfit, we are embracing community policing. No we are not doing any regional outfit,” he stressed