Ugwuanyi inaugurates 272 special constables for community policing

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, on Friday, inaugurated the 272 special constables from the 17 local government areas, recently recruited and trained at Oji River Police College, for community policing in the state.
The novel community policing programme, which is an initiative of the Nigeria Police Force, as communicated by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu Abubakar, is aimed at deepening community approach as well as confidence, trust and mutual respect between the police and the people, in the management of crimes and criminalities.
It would be recalled that Gov. Ugwuanyi, on July 9, 2020, inaugurated the 17-man Enugu State Community Policing Advisory Committee (SCPAC), headed by the State Commissioner of Police as chairman with the Chairman of the State Traditional Rulers’ Council, Igwe Lawrence Agubuzu, as co-chairman.
Inaugurating the 272 special constables, also known as Community Policing Officers (CPOs), at the Government House, Enugu, Ugwuanyi explained that 16 of them were recruited from each local government area of the state and drawn from the existing Neighborhood Watch Associations and Forest Guards.
The governor disclosed that the special constables would be deployed to their wards and local government areas to assist the extant security apparatus in gathering and sharing of intelligence with the security agencies as well as maintain liaison between their communities and the police.
The governor said that the state government would continue to provide the necessary support for community policing in the state “in furtherance of its unflinching commitment to the protection of lives and property of all law-abiding residents in Enugu State.