Conventionally, a typical security meeting has in attendance security commanders and some appointed and elected government officials. But a similar gathering that occurred recently in Ogbia local government area, Bayelsa State, was different.
It was an expanded security meeting involving only the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hilary Opara, and other stakeholders within and outside the local government area. The gathering was the initiative of Hilary, a professional police officer, whose achievements were being threatened by a gale of kidnapping sweeping across the state of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Hilary is rated as “the best commissioner of police in Zone 5” comprising Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Delta states. The state has the lowest crime rate. When the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Argungu Hashimu, visited the state recently, he praised the efforts of Hilary and described his command as the best in the zone.
No wonder, the commissioner has been jolted by the recent incidents of kidnapping especially in Ogbia. Daredevil kidnappers appear to have laid siege to the council which has multiple creeks and waterfronts. They struck in consistent operations and whisked their victims to unknown places in the mangroves. Hilary was restless as he battled the gunmen terrorising his domain.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the abduction of the cousin of President Jonathan, Chief Inengite Nitabai. Having formulated strategies that set the septuagenarian free after about 18 days in captivity, Hilary was worried over the abduction spree in Ogbia. He was angry that other stakeholders had abandoned security of their territories to only the police.
He, therefore, decided to reawaken their security consciousness by calling for a security meeting. As expected, he chose a hall in Ogbia as the venue of the meeting and by coincidence the parley held on Thursday last week, the day, Nitabai, was rescued from the kidnappers’ den by the police.
Before the meeting, he said: “It is not acceptable for the local government chairmen to be parading themselves as the chief security officers of their areas while people commit crime with impunity.
“What are the chairmen of the various community development committees doing? What are the efforts of the traditional rulers, youth leaders and other stakeholders in various communities in tackling kidnaping and other crimes? It is unacceptable.”
Little wonder, chiefs, chairmen of the eight local government areas, traditional rulers, chairmen of community development committees and youth leaders attended the meeting.
Hilary did not mince words. He told the gathering the truth. He asked them to take responsibility for the security of their various communities. “Don’t try to secure other communities. Just secure your own community and there will be peace everywhere,” he said.
He insisted that persons committing the crimes in the state belong to communities. He wondered why such communities always claim ignorant of the identities of such criminal elements. He said failures of communities to assist the police would amount to complicity and an indictment on its various leadership.
He said to the stakeholders: “If you see something, you should say something not just keeping quiet. When you see these boys moving around, alert the police and other security agencies. That is the only way we can handle them. We are not magicians. We work on information.
“We don’t want your communities to be used as hideouts for kidnappers. We don’t want your waterfronts to be used as areas of operations. So, you assist the police and security agencies to assist you too. Help us to help you. Give us information. We are resolved to serve you and that is the message for today.”
He insisted that he convened the meeting to reawaken the security consciousness of the people. “We came here to awaken the security consciousness of the people. We came to alert them that we must partner with the police and other security agencies to curb criminality in the society.
“We need that partnership because there is no way we can go on alone. After this meeting we expect them to give us useful information. I told them,” he said.
Though the police boss was a little disappointed at the response he got from some of the speakers, he believed that the meeting had achieved its objectives. Some of the community leaders begged for mobilisation and stipends to enable them fight crime in their domains.
Such contributions did not go down well with the local government chairmen who attended the meeting. The Chairman of the Association of Local Government in Nigeria (ALGON) who is also the council boss of Yenagoa local government area, Mr. Chubby Walson, did not hide his feelings.
He told the people that it was wrong to demand mibilisation before securing their environment. “When issues of managing security in our various communities were raised, people stood up and were talking about mobilisation and stipends. This is wrong.
“The jobs of CDC chairmen and youth leaders are voluntary.it is when you have done your homework well that you can ask for encouragement from the government. It is not every issue that we should be talking about money”.
He described the meeting as very important. He said: “This meeting is very important. That is why almost all the chairmen of various local government areas are in attendance.
“It is a security meeting and we know that as chairmen, we are the chief security officers in our LGAs. We treat security matters very paramount and there is none of the chairmen here that don’t hold security meetings.”
