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Okey Sampson, Aba
Abia State government is set to establish a Ministry of Homeland Security, as part of measures to mitigate against violent crimes and the menace of herdsmen’s attacks in the state.
According to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, the ministry would come into force with a commissioner assigned to oversee it, once the House of Assembly screens and clears the commissioner-nominees he sent to them.
The governor said the list of commissioner-nominees before the Assembly included the nominee for the Ministry for Homeland Security.
Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Onyebuchi Ememanka, in a statement, yesterday, said governor Ikpeazu who spoke on the sidelines of the ECOWAS Summit on Terrorism at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, said it was important for the state to create the ministry and empower it to checkmate the activities of Fulani herdsmen,violent crimes, and to safeguard lives and property in the state.
“The whole idea is to ensure that no inch of Abia territory will remain ‘unpoliced’ and field personnel of the new Ministry will be trained under a collaborative effort with the Nigeria Police,” he said.
Governor Ikpeazu who attended the Summit as part of the Nigerian delegation called for a shift from a core geographic approach to what he described as a ‘geostrategic approach’ in the war against terror.
He called for intelligence gathering and sharing, joint operations, good governance and a structured educational system for the youths as ways that can be adopted in the fight against violent crimes and terrorism.
