Enugu Assembly Wants Police Presence In Communities

The Enugu State House
of Assembly Committee on Security, Youths and Sports has urged the commissioner of police in the state to deploy 20 policemen to every community.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Nelson Uduji, made the appeal in Enugu when the committee visited the state police command as part of its oversight function.
Uduji said the committee was there to show solidarity with the commissioner and to commend him on the way he had been providing security to the people of the state.
He said that the work of police was hard as their lives were always in danger, adding that police needed support from the residents of the state.
The committee chairman encouraged the people to help the police to combat crime in the society through the neighbourhood watch.
Uduji urged the commissioner to raise people in the various communities to assist the police in their work as they would know the terrain more than the policemen.
He commended the commissioner for the reduction of crime in the state in the past months since he came on board, adding that the assembly was ready to partner with the police.
The committee chairman complained that there were few policemen in the assembly complex, adding that security should be beefed up in the area because of the population of people there.
Uduji urged the commissioner to organise workshops in secondary schools to educate the students on the dangers of cultism as the rate was increasing.
Responding, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Emmanuel Ojukwu, said that security was everybody’s business as the police only would provide a helping hand.
Ojukwu said that he had been organising training and re-training to ginger his men to improve on the security of the state.
The commissioner said that there were hazards in Enugu State, especially in the rural areas, adding that his men were doing their best to apprehend criminals.
Ojukwu said that the Inspector-General of Police had directed him to form Eminent Person’s Forum to look into security issues in the state.
He complained that the manpower in police was depreciating as policemen retired on a daily basis and that police had not recruited new hands since 2011.
“The President had graciously approved the recruitment of 10,000 police officers but it is nothing compared to the number of policemen needed in the country.
“I will provide more security at the assembly as it is one of the major arms of the government,’’ he said.
Ojukwu said that the police apprehended 50 cultists on July 7 as they celebrated the day because seven represented axe, their major operational weapon.