By Emily Eghosa
The Commissioner for Public Security and Safety, Hon. Omololu Ojehomon, has re-emphasized the need for stronger collaboration and synergy among security agencies to sustain the gains the State has recorded in providing security for residents and their property.
She made the assertion while delivering a lecture at the Festival Hall, Government House, Benin City, to officers of the Armed Forces Command Staff College who were on a study tour of the State.
Doing justice to the lecture themed ‘Youth Unemployment and National Security in Nigeria’, Hon. Ojehomon stated that “the youths are the focal points as they are the largest, strongest, most innovative and adaptive set of people and are usually the ones targeted for destructive purposes. They can easily be introduced to drugs and crime if there are no good systems and processes to put them on the right track”.
She attributed the high rate of unemployment in the Country to inadequate basic amenities, poor policies, poor quality of education, low level of skills by job seekers, lack of value addition to the economy and agriculture, amongst others.
According to the Commissioner, to correct these anomalies, the Edo State Government has recognized these setbacks and is executing policies and programs such as the Edo State Basic Education Sector Transformation program (EdoBEST) which is improving the educational system, drastic reduction in corruption and fraud within government using technology, employment for residents based on merit, improved health care system and has made skills programs available through EdoJobs.
She expressed the Government’s desire to ensure a secure environment for all Edo residents by taking steps to mitigate cult-related violence.
The commissioner went further to explain that they go after the criminality in cults and not the cults, as some communities have their associations and cults that are non-destructive.
However, provisions were made for people who needed a way out in renouncing their cult membership. Some of them with educational degrees, she said, are employed and integrated into the workforce while others are introduced to skills acquisition programs.
Ojehomon said: “Working hand-in-hand with the Nigeria Police Force has helped us to achieve a lot”.
She further said that the collaboration with the police and vigilante network has helped in gathering large intelligence and manpower to subdue areas with high security challenges and so far, the state has experienced a great deal of peace.
She stressed that for continuity, the people at the grassroots need to be carried along and given constant reorientation especially during electioneering periods, as politics, according to her, is no basis for anyone to formulate violence against another, and neither is it one for disrupting general peace.
