The heads of the security agencies and representatives from the 18 local government areas met with the acting governor of Edo State, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu, on Thursday, July 14, 2022, in Government House, Benin City, to discuss the state’s security challenges.
Addressing journalists after the Security Council Meeting, Shaibu said, “We have just concluded the Security Council Meeting, which had all the Acting Chairmen of the 18 local government areas and representatives from the committee set up for Ihama and Boundary roads in attendance.”
According to him, “The meeting was to appraise the security situation in the State, flowing from the order that was given to the local government councils, in conjunction with the traditional rulers in their various domains.
“So we wanted to get feedback from them on how those directives have been carried out.
“We are happy that we have the cooperation of village heads, clan heads and the community heads (Odionweres). The vigilante groups and hunters are working hand-in-hand with our divisional area police officers and other security agencies.
“Interestingly, meetings were held across all the local government areas and in attendance were the heads of local government administrations, the security agencies in all the local government areas, traditional rulers, hunters and the vigilante groups. They carried out our orders to clear our bushes, and a lot of revelations were made and it is still work in progress.”
However, the Acting Governor asked locals to exercise greater caution and report any suspicious behaviour to the authorities.
“Most importantly, we still want to solicit that our people should know that the security of lives and property is our collective responsibility. If they see anything, they should say it. We should be vigilant; we should not relax.
“The security agencies and all we have put in place is work in progress, and it is yielding positive result” he added.
The commissioner of police for Edo state, Abutu Yaro, spoke on behalf of the security forces and discussed the proactive measures they had put in place to prevent the escaping inmates from the recent jailbreak in Abuja from seeking asylum in the state.
The Police chief said: “At our frontier locations, we have put sufficient black neck; and it all appears to me that knowing too well that the security architecture of Edo State is top notch to detection and prevention, most of them have avoided coming to Edo territory since they forced themselves out of confinement in the last two weeks.”
Yaro urged: “If you see anything untoward happening in your environment, report to the appropriate authorities; to the vigilantes, to your traditional rulers, political leaders, government functionaries, the Police, the military, to whoever has authority over situations.
“So that through that we work in synergy to continuously dominate the security environment, and that is what we are doing.”