Proper planning of cities could reduce social vices- POCACOV

By Maduka Nweke

A non governmental organisation, Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV) has said that proper planning of cities and towns could be a panacea to crimes in Nigeria.

Speaking during a press interview in Enugu earlier this week, the National Coordinator of POCACOV, CSP Ebere Amaraizu, said the impact of a well laid out urban and regional plan in communities cannot be overemphasised as it will help in the security coverage and crime prevention of ungoverned spaces.

According to Amaraizu, “record has shown that there are some spaces that are ungoverned due to non-compliance to the laid down urban and regional planning framework, which has made the policing of the said areas difficult.

“Urban and regional master plan grades a community settlement into different land uses – residential, commercial, industrial, institutional etc, and link the uses with good adjoining routes.

“Some crimes are land-based, while some are class-based and that is why residential areas are further graded into low, medium and high residential densities with their individual characteristics. Industrial areas are further graded into heavy and light areas,” he said.

He, however, said that crimes and other incidences of insecurity would be difficult to tackle in areas that are not planned because individual households are not easily identified as they appear fused together.

He said that records have it that rate of crime was always higher in unplanned settlements compared to a planned settlements.The POCACOV national coordinator said that, based on the identified factors, the organisation has widened the scope on its stakeholders to include town planners.

“This was done in partnership with urban and regional planning agencies and associations to raise awareness so that stakeholders will join hands to address badly planned or non-existence of layout plans in some communities in the country.

“This move will enable our ungoverned spaces to be captured, thereby enhancing public safety as contained in the Nigeria Police Public Safety and Security Framework of Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu,” Amaraizu added.