South-East Governors urged to implement community-based security policy

Akpelu Azunna, president general, Ogbako Ndígbo Nile Worldwide, an Igbo socio-cultural organisation, has called on the Governor’s of the South-East region to implement a community-based security structure to protect the zone against external aggression.

He said that community-based security will protect farms, markets, and local industries, ensure safe road travel for traders and commuters as well as encourage diaspora investment and tourism.

He called on Governors Hope Uzodinma, Charles Soludo, Peter Mbah, Alex Otti, and Francis Nwifuru to convene a South East Regional Security Summit to fully implement the community-based security structure in every ward, provide legal, financial, and technical support to communities and collaborate across states to ensure continuity and consistency.

He said that the South East of Nigeria, homeland of the industrious Igbo people, is at a critical security crossroads.

“Once known for peace, safety, and communal harmony, the region has increasingly become plagued by criminal activities, including kidnappings, armed robbery, political violence, cultism, farmer-herder clashes, and ungoverned spaces.

“This unfortunate trend demands urgent, coordinated, and community-driven security interventions. A key solution is the full implementation of a community-based security policy across all five South Eastern states of Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi”.

He observed that the traditional security architecture (military, police, DSS) is overstretched and often lacks the local intelligence and mobility to respond swiftly to threats in remote communities, noting that a community-based security model leverages local knowledge, kinship networks, and traditional institutions to provide real-time intelligence and prevent crimes before they escalate.

By adopting and implementing this model, Azunna said that the Governors can deter crime, through community surveillance, secure rural communities and farmlands and restore public confidence in governance and law enforcement.

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“In every village or town, residents know who belongs and who does not. This advantage gives them the ability to detect strange behavior, unfamiliar faces, and potential threats early”.

He said that a well-organised community-based security policy empowers traditional rulers to restore order, as Town unions and vigilante groups, would conduct patrols, whike youth and women groups support intelligence gathering.

According to him, security is the foundation of investment, commerce, and industry. The South East, renowned for its entrepreneurial spirit, cannot flourish if markets are attacked, roads are unsafe, and traders live in fear.

“Governors must realize that without security, there is no economic recovery or industrialization”.

He noted that youths must be engaged for peace and roductivity, stressing that an idle and unemployed youth population is a major contributor to insecurity.

“By recruiting, training, and engaging youths in community-based security, the policy can serve as a vehicle for job creation and crime reduction. Such a policy will offer structured employment for thousands of able-bodied men and women, reduce recruitment into criminal gangs, cult groups, and insurgent movements”, he said.