EBONYI TO RECRUIT 1,000 PERSONS TO FIGHT INSECURITY
Reporter : AMECHI ODO
Ebonyi State Government is to recruit one thousand vigilantes to strengthen the security architecture of the state to prevent future attacks communities by suspected herdsmen in the state and burning of police stations.
The Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Kenneth Ugbala, stated this in joint press briefing shortly after an expanded security meeting at Government House Abakaliki.
Dr. Ugbala, who briefed journalists along with the State Commissioner for Internal Security, Mr. Stanley Okoroemegha, explained that traditional rulers and town union presidents had been directed to recruit five persons in every autonomous community to serve in the vigilance outfit.
He noted that while seven hundred of the personnel would be trained and deployed to border communities, three hundred would man strategic places within the urban areas.
The Secretary to the State Government said those to be recruited would be provided with logistics, including operational vehicles, to enable them to nip crime in the bud.
“The government had already purchased a number of vehicles that can help them after their training and inauguration to do their works better. They will equally be paid and we have provisions for Dane guns,” he said.
The Commissioner for Internal Security, Mr. Emegha, said he was mandated to conduct inspection on infrastructural facilities in all Police formations across the state for interventions in the area of perimeter fence, solar light and provision of water.
“There are some of them that are in dilapidated condition, the Governor had directed that I should move around the whole police stations in the state to know the areas for which their buildings need to be touched.”
Mr. Emegha explained that approval had been given for the installation of Close Circuit Cameras in all police stations to monitor activities in the facilities.
He added that thirty Hilux vans would be procured in the next two weeks for distribution to security agencies.