By Gbenga Akingbule
Nigerian Maritime Administration And Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) on Thursday held meetings with stakeholders with a view to ensuring that preventive measures are taken to tackle insecurity in the state.
Gatekeepers News reports that the stakeholders were drawn from the Academia, Civil Society, Security agencies, and Local Civilian Joint Task Force amongst others.
The move, according to NIMASA and SEMA, is aimed at paving way for collaboration between security agencies and civilians in sharing information that will lead to crime prevention.
This was disclosed by the representative of the Director General of NIMASA Mr Isiche Osamgbi and the Director General of SEMA during a One-Day Security Sensitisation workshop held at the Women Development Centre in Maiduguri, the Borno State Capital.
Osamgbi who is the Director, Special Duties at NIMASA stated that his organisation is already looking beyond security and safety on waterways and declared that preventive security measures must first be taken on land through a collaborative effort by relevant stakeholders.
According to him, the workshop, which is being held in the six geopolitical zones of the country, aims to utilise the collaborative efforts of the youths, community leaders and the armed forces to assist NIMASA to deliver on its mandate.
“Our intention on the outcome of this workshop is clear; it is to ensure the effective relationship between security agencies and the civil populace that will engender sharing of useful information that will lead to crime prevention both on land and on waterways.
“We are of the opinion that the danger is not only on waterways but also on land. We shouldn’t see security challenges on land as the sole responsibility of the man on land; security is everybody’s responsibility,” Osamgbi said.
The Director General of SEMA Hajja Yabawa Kolo who corroborated the position of NIMASA stated that the workshop is timely and will help to address security challenges in different parts of the state
Hon Kolo who decried the proliferation of small arms in many parts of the country noted that collaboration between NIMASA and SEMA will assist Borno local communities with regard to sharing useful information that will assist mitigate and preventing crime in the rural areas.
“More resources will be required to ensure that the rural areas benefit from this noble objective of addressing security challenges in the local government areas,” Mrs Kolo said.
