FCT engages vigilantes for schools, as bandits invade fringes towns

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has disclosed of plans to hire local vigilance groups for its schools in the wake of security reports that fleeing bandits from contiguous states have made an incursion into the fringes of the territory.

Director, Administration and Finance in the Security Services Department of the FCTA, Dr. Abdul-lateef Bello made the revelation at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.

The director, who confirmed that the security architecture of the territory is being overstretched, also revealed that plans had been concluded by the Administration to hire vigilance services to provide security in the various public schools across the Territory.

He explained that the measures were temporary until a blueprint on security is developed by the FCT Administration soon.

He said: “We are talking of short term measures when we said we are helping public schools to facilitate the procurement of vigilantes to complement the efforts of conventional security agencies. Remember that some of the vigilantes are equally part of the neighbourhood.

“They were sourced from the neighbourhood where those schools are situated. So, they know better. It is a way of establishing a relationship between the community and government. When the vigilantes see anything that is beyond them, they relate with the conventional security agencies to help out.

“Let us liken security management to a football game. In a football game, nobody will ask the goalkeeper how many goals saved rather, what we want to know is how many goals were scored. I can tell you that for every 15 or 20 crimes or criminals arrested, be assured that about 50 or 60 situations would have been saved or prevented.

“So, that is why I will always appeal to FCT residents to be patient with government, to listen and provide support, information when necessary because security agents or security agencies are not spirits. They are human organisations, they need the corporation, they need our information to be able to succeed. On whether or not we are finding it difficult to contain the incidents of kidnapping in the FCT, you’ll understand that kidnapping is prevalent not just In FCT. In fact, if you compare the statistics of kidnapping activities in other states to that of the FCT, you will agree with me that the FCT is really putting enough measures to prevent or contain the menace of kidnapping.

“I have just told you that in an attempt to deepen our efforts in the fight against kidnapping, we have revitalised and resuscitated the G-7 initiative. It means we don’t have to do this alone. We have to bring all our G-7 partners to help us collaborate, so we can embark on a simultaneous and joint raids to keep some of these bad elements out of the FCT.

“Don’t forget that the dissemination of banditry and kidnapping in North East, North West, is putting pressure on the fringes of FCT. People are running down, so that is why we engage the G-7 initiative so that we can jointly push these people away,” he said.

(Vanguard)