In a move to strengthen the security of life and property at the grassroots, the Commissioner of Police, Ondo State Command, Mr. Wilfred Afolabi has organised a town hall meeting with all communities in Idanre Local Government Area of the state.
The commissioner also visited the Deji and Paramount ruler of Akure, Oba Ogunlade Aladetoyinbo, at his palace discussing the need for the collaboration of the traditional institutions with the police in nipping crime in the bud.
During the meeting, the people tabled their various security challenges in the individual communities.
They emphasized the need to beef up security in the communities by deploying more policemen to the local government and the wherewithal they will work with for timely response to emergencies.
Residents of the Gbalegi community solicited for the establishment of a Police Post in the community to check the activities of criminals that usually infiltrate their farms to steal their farm produce, especially cocoa and tree felling.
Earlier, the commissioner said the meeting became necessary for them to see how they could work together on the programme, and community safety partnership, initiated by the commissioner.
He said the programme is focusing on how to ensure good service delivery through feedback and review of activities of residents as it affects the security of the community and the state in general.
Fielding questions from news en, the CP said: “The essence of this meeting is for us to get acquainted with the security challenges they may be having and at the same time for them to give us an assessment of service delivery of the police in this community.
“But most important is for police to get closer to the stakeholders in the community to enhance free flow of information and at the same time look at areas to exploit so that police can discharge its duty effectively and more efficiently.
“It’s one of the beauties of this community safety partnership forum. If I had not come, I would not have had access to some of this information that was brought to my knowledge this afternoon.
“So, having gotten this information, we’ll go back to our drawing boards and see how some of these issues can be tackled and resolved.
“I will do system analysis and by doing that, I will be in a better position to know the security modalities to put in place to address most of the issues which they brought to our knowledge.”
Reacting to the initiative of the commissioner, the Deji and Paramount ruler of Akure kingdom commended the Commissioner of Police for the initiative he described as laudable.
He assured that he and other traditional rulers in the state would continue to support the state government and all security agencies in checking the activities of criminals across the state.
Oba Aladetoyinbo said: “The Commissioner of Police’s initiative is laudable. Just as we have been doing in the past, we are going to reinvigorate the synergy among all security agencies in the state to keep our state safe from the hands of criminals.
“I and other traditional rulers in Ondo State will cooperate with the police and other security agencies to ensure the success of this programme, community safety partnership.”
High Chief Osore of Idanre, Charles Akinde said: “We are very grateful to the Commissioner and we think he will keep on his promises.
“The issue we are facing in Idanre is the importation of the strangers. I don’t know whether it’s the land grabbers. The official support for this kind of activities is what we cannot understand and that’s what we want the police to address.”
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