By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON, Kaduna.
No fewer than 350 volunteers of the Neighbourhood Enlightenment and Safety Organisation (NESO) drawn from three states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have completed a four-day training aimed at improving their efficiency in preventing crime and terrorism in their various communities.
The training which was held at the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMC), Itakpe, Kogi State, saw the NESO volunteers from Kwara, FCT, Niger and Kogi lectured at the training with a theme: ‘Roles of Bridging Security Gap in Our Communities’.
At the closing ceremony of the training on Saturday, Commandant General of NESO, Comrade Sani Aliyu said that the importance of the role of security at the community level cannot be overemphasized, hence the need for the Federal Government to invest more into training of the conventional security outfits.
“Role of security in communities is very important. We have seen and experienced the situation in the country. The trust between the communities and security agencies has diminished. If any threat in any community comes up, the inhabitants don’t have the courage to carry reports to the conventional security agencies because people in charge of the security are not from the community. They do not understand their language or culture,” he said.
Speaking further, he said that there have been instances that those who give vital information to the Police end up behind bars, a situation he explained makes several people with useful information shy away from taking same to them.
“When there is crime, the informant is arrested and locked up, becomes a criminal instead of informant. I remember what happened to our officer in Lagos who discovered a bomb manufacturing site in a church. The first police that went there said he didn’t see anything. When the DPO later went there and discovered explosives, later at their station, they exposed the informant, in front of people, which is life threatening. We find it amusing that a trained police would expose an informant,” he said.
Speaking further, he said that NESO is at the forefront of canvassing for early warning mechanism to be activated in Nigeria, to prevent a crime by detecting it even before it is committed.
He praised President Muhammadu Buhari and all the conventional security agencies for ensuring that terrorism has no hiding place in the country.
On the role NESO is playing in contributing to the elimination of crime and terrorism, he said that even the Director General of the Department for State Security (DSS) has praised them.
“I was with the DG DSS and he praised NESO for being the only security NGO registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) that is contributing its part on the fight against terrorism and insurgency. Not on the DSS, but Pentagon affirmed that NESO is the only security NGO in Africa.
“We are Nigerians, we have patriotic well placed Nigerians on our Board of Trustees and our passion is to secure lives,” he added.
In his remarks at the closing ceremony, Technical Assistant to the Sole Administrator ofNIOMC Itakpe, Engineer Adamu Sadiq praised NESO for several testimonies of their activities that have been recorded.
“Everybody is commending NESO. I wish you God’s protection in carrying out your activities. Government should listen to you to tackle the challenges of insecurity especially at the grassroots,” he added.
The four-day training course began on Wednesday and ended on Saturday, attracting several dignitaries, top among whom was the Onoja of Umene, Chief Yakubu Sanni.
