National Economic Council establishes committee on security, policing to address banditry, kidnapping

The National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday set up a Security and Policing Committee to address the current challenges of banditry, kidnapping and cultism in some parts of the the country.

This was disclosed by the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, at the end of the maiden 2019/2023 NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House in Abuja.

He said another key issue discussed at the NEC meeting was revisiting the Safer City initiative which entailed the installation of CCTV cameras in Abuja and other major cities in the country.

He said: “It was as a result of human intelligence that we got from members of the public that made us achieve the feat in stablising security situation in the country.

“This came under the strategic cooperation that we came up with which we called `Operation Puff Adder’ and  within the framework of that operation a lot of kidnapping suspects were arrested; a lot of arms were recovered and this we succeeded of the cooperation from members of the public.

“The council concluded that a Security and Policing Committee should be set up; so, it has been set up. Membership includes the governors of Ekiti State, Bayelsa State, Ebonyi State, Kastina State, Kogi State and Borno State; they will be joined by the National Security Adviser, the IG-P and the Defence Staff or his representative.

“Part of the strategy to deal with the security  situation and to prevent crime ; I presented is to bring back the `Safer City’ concept where all our major cities are fixed with CCTV, the project has been going on but now we resuscitated the programme and we have started with FCT.

“Within our Command and Control Office, we are able to put some cameras at strategic places in FCT with a view to reviving this Safer City initiative; we have  written to state governors also asking the state governors to key into that strategy so that major cities within the state also have CCTV coverage. The latest technology we are brining on will cost little or nothing to the government.”