By Muhammad Babayo ASHA
Stakeholders at a Mutual Accountability and Community Scorecard Project dialogue in Bauchi advocated aggressive surveillance and enhance police ratio per citizens to guarantee security of lives and property.
The dialogue which was held at Ningi local government Secretariat is organized by a Non Governmental Organization, Voluntary Aid Initiative VAI with support from International Alert and funded by the UK International Development.
Some of them, Nasiru Abubakar Yunus and Rashida Sale stressed the need for the provision of sophisticated weapons and enhance package for the police to enable them perform their duties effectively.
They identified corruption and poor leadership style among Police Authorities as well as lack of public trust on the police as some of the factors responsible for rampant cases of insecurity across the country.
Earlier speaking, the Programme Officer Zainab Muhammad Hassan said VAI was established to improve community strength through community engagement, policy development, legislative initiatives and effective monitoring.
Zainab Muhammad Hassan appealed to the stakeholders to support the NGO to deliver on its mandate to foster police, community relationship in line with the Police Act to reduce the rate of crimes in the society.
She said Ningi was the only local government selected as pilot in the state for the project that is being implemented along side Zamfara State and called on the stakeholders to support the NGO to succeed.
Also speaking, the District Head of Ningi Alhaji Yusuf Yunusa assured traditional institutions readiness to support all government’s policies and programmes that were initiated to improve the living standard of the common man.
Alhaji Yusuf Yunusa who is also the Chiroman Ningi pledged readiness to mobilize people from the grassroot levels to champion the course of peace for the overall development of the area and the state in general.
On his part, the Council’s Executive Chairman, Nasiru Zakarai who expressed delight for selecting the local government for the pilot project pledged to support the NGO throughout the period of the project.
Nasiru Zakarai said the support became necessary considering the rampant cases of security breached in the area which required collaboration of all relevant stakeholders.
Speaking on the overview of the project and identification of issues with the community, the Facilitator Alhaji Shu’aibu Ali Kobi identified citizens’ participation into security related issues as paramount to achieve the crusade.
Shu’aibu Ali Kobi said the Police Reform Act which seeks to ensure effective and efficient service delivery through collaboration ought to be supported by relevant stakeholders especially traditional and religious leaders.
The dialogue drew participants from PRCR, Traditional and religious leaders, youth and women groups among others.
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