Community Policing, Strong Intelligence Will Solve Security Problem – Ambode

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi-Ambode

The Model Employed By Lagos Could Be Applied In Nigeria – Ambode

In respect to the security challenges in Nigeria, Akinwunmi Ambode, the Lagos State Governor, stated that the only means out of the crisis is to employ community policing and strong intelligence gathering.

The statement was made on Tuesday, while speaking at the Executive Intelligence Management Course II of the Institute for Security Studies in Abuja.

Akinwunmi, noted that to tackle the security challenges in the country, more attention has to be paid to improved intelligence gathering over the provision of physical security apparatuses.

He stated that the security issues the country was grappling with, including international terrorism and insecure borders, local terrorism, proliferation of small arms into big cities, cyber warfare, drug trafficking, and human trafficking, among others, all pointed to the need for a strong intelligence gathering framework to be put in place to nip potential crime in the bud.

According to Ambode, if policymakers such as the participants at the course could not understand such security issues from the point of first-rate intelligence, then it will be difficult for effective policies to be made and implemented to combat them.

“In the pursuit of the primus inter pares of all governance challenges, we have identified that the gathering and utilisation of intelligence are of paramount importance, even ahead of the provision of physical security apparatuses,” he said in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Habib Aruna.

The governor revealed the reason behind the establishment of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corp Agency (LNSC), stating that it was to enhance intelligence gathering in the communities.

He said being the melting pot of diverse cultures, as well as a major economic hub and the fifth largest economy in Africa with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $131billion, Lagos had been able to appropriate its cultural values, especially the multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan nature, to confront its security and governance challenges.

Ambode affirmed that the country could learn from the model of Lagos state which is aimed at fighting crime and administering governance.

While speaking on the security challenges faced by his administration at initial stage, he said that support of the security agencies were sought to set up military bases and security operations in fighting the menace.

The governor attributed this to the rescue of kidnap victims and arrest of kidnap kingpins in Lagos, while further steps were taken on intelligence gathering and as community partnership, as well as huge investment in security.