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Insecurity: Ekhomu urges traditional rulers to protect their communities

By Tobi Awodipe
03 February 2018   |   4:11 am
Renowned security expert, Ona Ekhomu has advised traditional rulers to provide effective leadership in the security of their domains, as a way of fulfilling their part of the social contract with their subjects.

Renowned security expert, Ona Ekhomu has advised traditional rulers to provide effective leadership in the security of their domains, as a way of fulfilling their part of the social contract with their subjects. He said that exercising purposeful leadership in security management of their respective communities would enhance the legitimacy of the traditional rulership institution and contribute to national security.

Speaking at the national conference on “Culture, Peace and National Security: The Role of Traditional Rulers” organized by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation yesterday, Ekhomu, providing a roadmap for security in Nigerian communities captioned “A-Z of the Role of Traditional Rulers in Security Management”, urged traditional rulers to take ownership of the security management of their domains. He told them to harness the critical resources available including law enforcement, military, youth age grades, prominent citizens from the area, etc. in the security architecture of the community. Ekhomu, who is the President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), urged the rulers to embrace and support law enforcement authorities in their communities by building and donating police posts where possible. He advised traditional rulers in rural communities to support public security personnel by providing foodstuffs, rent-free housing and farm lands for subsistence farming.

Ekhomu advised traditional rulers to establish liaison with security agencies as a way of creating force multiplication in the community.

On intelligence gathering, Ekhomu tasked rulers to engage in information gathering and escalation to the authorities for action, saying that if information provided to the public authorities is neglected and a security breach occurs, the ruler can then take the authorities to task, so that information supplied to the authorities in future will be acted upon.

He urged the royal fathers to undergo training in security awareness so they can pass on such information to their subjects, using the town crier where necessary. On the tactical level, Ekhomu urged rulers to conduct demographic mapping in order to keep a record of ex-service personnel in their domains. He urged the formation of Threat Assessment Teams (TAT) “that may enable your community analyze imminent threats and how to respond to them”.

He advised royal fathers to maintain a record of security incidents in their communities to enable them conduct probability analysis of the occurrence of loss events, and produce reports for the political elites, urging rulers to name and shame families of confirmed armed robbers, kidnappers and cultists.

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