Commission partners with police to protect Northeast region
From: Njadvara MUSA, Maiduguri
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has partnered with the Nigerian Police Force in the protection of people’s lives and property in the liberated communities of the Northeast.
The partnership is in the provision of furniture equipment and office fittings for effective policing of Borno State against terrorism and other crimes.
Presenting the non-operational assets, at the weekend (Friday), in Maiduguri, NEDC’s Managing Director, Mohammed Alkali; disclosed: “Our partnership of interventions is to provide an enabling environment for the policemen to secure the liberated communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.”
He added that other intervention measures include the rebuilding of a police barrack at Garkida, Adamawa state which was destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents last year.
Besides the police barracks, he further disclosed that contracts have also been awarded for the upgrade and modernisation of police stations at Konduga and Bama in Borno state.
“This is to fast track the restoration of peace and civil authority in the 22 liberated Local Government Areas,” he said.
He also pledged to consider the demands made by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba to secure the six insurgency-affected states of the region.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Farouk said that the police need more support from governmental and other donor agencies to secure all parts of the country.
Sadiya, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Nasir Gwarzo urged the Commission to sustain the partnership in securing people’s lives and property.
According to him, the intervention support is on intelligence and other logistics to overcome the challenges of securing the people against terrorism, banditry and abduction.
While thanking the Commission, representative of Baba, DIG Zanna Ibrahim, the Deputy Inspector General in charge of logistics and supply, DIG, described the partnership, as the right time to protect people’s lives against terrorism.
He, therefore, requested NEDC to further assist the Police with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), operational vehicles and communication gadgets to improve intelligence gathering and policing of the entire Northeast.