Reject Community Policing, Group Tells Igbos

The Alaigbo Development Foundation, Monday, warned people of the Southeast against embracing community policing being canvassed by the Nigeria Police, saying the policy amounted to surrendering their security to ‘the Fulani-dominated Nigeria police’. The organization rather advised Igbos to embrace the vigilante scheme.

The body stated this in a statement signed by its president, Professor Uzodinma Nwala, which was made available to THE WHISTLER in Umuahia.

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According to the statement, “Virtually all communities have their vigilante; therefore every community must be encouraged to set up their community vigilantes. State Houses of assembly and governors should quickly enact enabling laws to back such measures. The state governments and various communities must provide the needed resources for their effective operation. We must say NO to the so-called community policing programme being propagated by the Nigeria Police, which some governors, for some other reasons, are accepting.” While calling on the Igbo to take their destinies into their hands, Prof Nwala said security was the joint responsibility of the people and their government, adding that, “Any state government that fails to take these legal and political measures to ensure the security of our ancestral homes must be declared an enemy of our people. It is in this breath that both ADF and the Coalition of Alaigbo Religious and Civil Society Organizations support the #EndOpenGrazingNow Campaign# as well as the ‘One Million March’ proposed for this August.”

He called on the Igbo and other ethnic nationalities to emulate steps being taking by ‘our kits-and-kin in the Anioma areas of Delta State to prevent the invasion of their territory by Fulani herdsmen’. Nwala said, “Umuigbo, our destiny is in the hand of God, but our God expects us not to fold our hands and allow our ancestral land to be overrun by the invaders. We must fight for it, and then He will give us victory!”

He recalled that ADF had in 2016, after due consultations, submitted a draft Anti-Open Grazing Bill to all the seven states in Igbo-speaking areas, and regretted that only the Abia House of Assembly passed the Bill, although awaiting to be signed into law by the governor.He questioned why grazing of cattle would be an issue, explaining that, “Criminals from West African and other countries have taken advantage of this situation to invade our communities, wrecking all manner of havoc, killing, maiming, kidnapping our innocent citizens, raping our wives and daughters with reckless abandon.” ADF therefore submitted that the first step in tackling the security challenges in the country was to control the free movement and grazing of cattle: “We are not saying that nobody should rear cattle. All we are saying is that open grazing of cattle is bad for our security, and is bad for our economy and our survival.Therefore, the law banning open grazing of animals – cattle, goats and sheep – is imperative for the above reasons. We must assert our collective resolve, and call on our governments to enact the Anti-Grazing Law.”

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