The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba Alkali has urged Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state to adopt community policing to fight crimes. According to him, collaborative community policing will engage traditional, religious and community leaders to protect people’s lives and property. Alkali tasked the leaders on Friday, when he paid a courtesy visit to Buni at the Government House, Damaturu, the state capital. He said that communities and their leaders will be proactive in various security matters that affect their lives.
“Community policing across the country has a lot of benefits in preventing the breakdown of law and order,” he said, adding that community policing is going back to the olden days when community, district and village heads were fully engaged in security matters. He noted that a community policing project is not an income earning project, but a sacrifice to secure communities from any criminal activities. He said that these are the means to add “more security value” to each and every community in the 774 Local Government Areas. He therefore called on Buni to encourage community leaders to talk to their people to commence community policing in the 17 councils.
In his response, Buni said that Yobe is one of the three states affected by Boko Haram insurgency that claimed many lives and property in the North east. “I assured you that security agencies in the state are always prepared to support and work with you,” he said, as the state government is committed to renovating and furnishing the Damaturu police headquarters. Other support to the Police Command include eight hectres of land for the building of police command secondary school and a hospital
