South East rejects IGP’s community policing template

They have therefore empowered the various houses of assembly in the zone to concertedly begin the enactment of state security laws without delay. Rising from their meeting in Enugu yesterday, the governors accused the IGP of reneging on the agreement reached with him during the South East Security Summit in January this year in same city.

During the forum, attended by the five state chief executives, political, religious and other stakeholders, they had resolved to implement a community policing programme that is locally driven.

According to the statement released during the event, officers from the region were to be posted to drive the initiative since “they know the terrain better than any other police officers who are not indigenes” to stem the insecurity in the area.

But The Guardian gathered yesterday that the IGP may have backed out following a letter to the governors asking them to inaugurate “an already selected police officers as members of the community policing in the zone.”

Sources at the meeting claimed that the personnel in question were not from the region, a development that was said to have angered the stakeholders, necessitating yesterday’s gathering.

Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Ebonyi State henchman, David Umahi, who read the communique, said: “The recent communication from the IGP to our governors on community policing composition is not in keeping with the agreement we reached with him during his last visit to the South East.”

He added: “In the circumstance, we cannot begin implementation of it until the programme reflects our earlier agreement. The South East governors and their leaders request the IGP to revert to our initial agreement reached on community policing at Enugu.”The meeting alleged that its security had continually been compromised by non-indigenes.