Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar, has called for the introduction of community policing as a way of checkmating security challenges in the country.
Atiku tweeted on Monday that Nigeria must return to community policing ‘to stem the tide of insecurity’.
He said that in his childhood days, Nigeria did not depend on the police ‘from Lagos or Kaduna’ because there was community police system.
“When I was a child, Nigeria had little crime. We did not depend on police from Lagos or Kaduna. We had a community police system. Nigeria must return to community policing, adapted to suit the culture and history of each of the 6 zones, in order to stem the tide of insecurity,” Atiku said.
“Our response to the killings of our citizens cannot be just talk, talk, and talk. We must take decisive action to protect the lives of all citizens, not just prominent ones. There has to be change, because if we continue with the way things are, we will get the same results.”
The former Vice President’s call for community police comes on the same day his former principal, Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari calling for quick response to insecurity in the country.
The nation was thrown into mourning last Friday when Funke Olakunri, leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, was killed by an armed gang on Kajola-Ore road, Ondo State.
