The governor gave the order while launching the first set of 550 Ibom Community Watch Officers for Uyo Local Government, held at Uyo Township Stadium on Friday.
He said, “I have not seen women in this recruitment, so I’m directing that of the next 5,000 Ibom Community Watch Officers that you want to recruit, 30% should go to women.”
He explained that the core vision of the outfit is to provide security and intelligence for the mainstream security services and ensure that government facilities are not vandalized.
“They are to work under very strict supervision and control of the main security agencies, especially the Police. Their jobs will be to provide security information, to help in crowd control, to help protect basic Government assets and ensure that there is peace in all the areas where they are located”, he said.
He said besides ensuring security in the rural communities and ensuring the safety of public facilities from vandals, the new security outfit would also create employment for about five thousand youths, and stimulate the economy by creating business for entrepreneurs.
He said, “I would like to also say that not only are we creating jobs for these five thousand people, we are creating jobs for small business enterprises. The uniforms you see here are made by Akwa Ibomites. All of the boots that these men are wearing are made by Akwa Ibomites and that is part of stimulating the economy so that our people who have handwork will continue to do more things,” he stated.
Reiterating his earlier directive that all splinter security groups be collapsed under the Ministry of Internal Security for profiling the governor further directed that the Ibom Community Watch would henceforth be in charge of crowd control at government events and controlling traffic caused by transporters and traders at some locations in the state to avoid conflict by splinter groups.
“These splinter groups may not have helped us as a State, and sometimes we have clashes among those groups. It is better we put all of those groups together, train them, profile them and give them permanent jobs and then move them off the streets so that they can be useful, not just to themselves, but also to the society, the governor said.
On the funding, the governor said “Government alone cannot fund it. We are going to set up a board comprising service personnel, our people and the private sector. We are going to work out a modality from January.”
“Everyone who picks up business in Government would have to pay a security fund, and everyone who does business in Akwa Ibom would have to contribute to the fund. The fund will not be managed by anyone in Government but in collaboration. The chairman of the trust fund would be a private citizen and a businessman who will understand that these funds are meant only for the security needs of our state,” he added.
Earlier, Commissioner for Internal Security and Waterways, General Koko Essien (rtd). noted that the launching of the Community Watch was a culmination of the training and passing out of the 550 trainees from the Uyo Local Government Area, explaining that the outfit will accommodate five thousand youths in the State recruited from the political units for equity and fairness.
On his part, the Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State Command, CP Olatoye Durosinmi, commended the initiative of the Umo Eno led- government in tackling security challenges, saying that the engagement of 5,000 youths will not only ensure a significant reduction in criminality but enhance policing, especially with the spelt out rules of engagement.
Also speaking, the State Coordinator of the Ibom Community Watch, Isantim Kenneth Okon, expressed delight with Governor Eno for his visionary leadership approach which has reduced security challenges to the barest minimum and taken thousands of youths out of the streets through the Community Watch programme.
The high point of the launch was the unveiling of operational vehicles for the community watch programme.
