The first ever Peace and Security Summit is holding in Gombe State with the launch of 28 operational vehicles for the newly formed ‘Operation Hattara’ Task Force, by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali.
The three day Peace and Security Summit is an initiative of the Gombe State Government with the aim of providing an opportunity for a carefully selected cohort of experts, security personnel, government officials and other strategic stakeholders and community leaders to brainstorm on security issues.
Participants are expected to explore pressing internal security issues and identify new security and community pathways of mitigating them for lasting peace and stability in the state.
The Summit has the theme, ‘Mitigating Contemporary Security Challenges for Sustainable Socio-economic Development.’
Consequently, Governor Muhammadu Yahaya is conviced that the participants in the Summit will be able to chart a new direction for mitigating internal security matters not only in Gombe State but in the country as a whole.
According to him, the calibre of resource persons invited, the security personnel and strategic stakeholders participating in the summit will do justice to the issues.
“Although the present security situation in the country is generally precarious, Gombe State is relatively secure and peaceful. For instance, if we take a look at the Nigeria Security Tracker published monthly by Eons Intelligence (A reputable Risk and Security Consulting Organisation) Gombe State has recorded the least incidences of killings, kidnapping and other violent crimes during the first quarter of this year (2022) – thanks to the combined efforts of our security agencies and other relevant stakeholders,” Governor Yahaya said.
He, however said that despite the relative peace being enjoyed in the state, Gombe State was not spared from the security challenges being witnessed in other parts of the country.
He said the State had its record of security threats which he said were being fueled by political thuggery, youth resriveness and unemployment, which led round the emergence of the Kalare Group.
According to the Governor, the proactive stance of his administration the the combined efforts of the political class security agencies, community religious, as well as traditional institutions had prevented the group from becoming a criminal group and had helped in containing political thuggery and youth restiveness.
Gombe Traffic Corps
Governor Yahay said the Gombe State Traffic and Environmental Corps was created to support security agencies in the state to maintain law and order.
He said so far, 500 youths had been employed into the Corp, out of the 2000 youths estimated to be enrolled into the scheme.
“This home grown initiative is aimed at harnessing the energies of our youths in state building in line with our human capital development initiative. To consolidate on this gains, we are once again collaborating with the relevant security agencies to launch a special security task force to be named as Operation Hattara which would be unveiled by the IGP today with the purpose of reinforcing our security architecture in and around Gombe State,” Governor Yahaya said.
According to him, the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, was established to train youths on informal intelligence gathering and security warning indicators.
Speaking during the launch of the operational vehicles named “Operation Hattara, IGP Alkali said the Gombe State Security and Peace summit was coming at a crucial time the Nigeria Police Force was working towards deepening the engagement of the concept of Community Partnership, Technology-driven policing, and intelligence-based model in mitigating the current internal security challenges in the country.
“This policing strategy seeks to address security challenges through an active citizens engagement in the identification, analysis, and mitigation of threats and to actualise it, the communities and strategic stakeholders have critical roles to play,” IGP Alkali stated.
He is hopeful that the 3-day Summit will discuss extensively all security issues and identify the effective strategies to address them.
IGP Alkali called on the resource persons and participants to pay attention to building trust between communities and the police, the role of citizens in providing actionable criminal information, and strategies for strengthening partnerships among various security agencies and the communities we serve.
He appreciated the initiative by Governor Yahaya for organiding the summit, therefore and encouraged all stakeholders to build on the outcome of the engagement in the overriding security interest of Gombe State.
The Emir of Gombe, His Royal Highness Abubakar Shehu Abubakar III, said the relative peace being enjoyed in state was because the state chose to adopt the culture of tolerance and peaceful co-existence.
The traditional ruler said he was happy that the 3-day summit was taking an all round approach to safeguard the peace in the state.
Confidence Okwuchi
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