‘Civilian JTF Approach Should be Adopted in Solving Niger Delta Crisis’

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Global Excellence Foundation (GEF) has called on the federal government to adopt the Civilian JTF approach in solving the problem of militancy in the oil rich Niger Delta region as a concept of community policing.

Its Country Director, Prof. Yemi Ola, stated this while addressing journalists yesterday in Abuja, where he commended the federal government for absorbing members of the Civilian JTF into the army and other security agencies.
He noted that the federal government should start expanding the process by asking all military, security and para-military services to take inventory of their personnel needs in the areas covered by the civilian JTF with a view to identifying the ones that could be filled under the absorption programme.

Ola suggested that adopting the civilian JTF approach in addressing the problem of militancy in the Niger Delta should not be ruled out since it worked so well in providing the community component to fighting Boko Haram in the North-east.

According to him, “Now that the militants have not started taking human life is when to bring in a sort of civilian JTF, which is the concept of community policing that helped defeat Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State and environ. President Muhammadu Buhari mustn’t wait till things in the South-south gets as ugly as that of Boko Haram before applying this homegrown solution.

Ola,who was a member of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic noted: “It therefore makes sense that the remaining Civilian JTF are accepted into one security agency or the other so that youths in other geo-political zones will easily heed the clarion call to serve because they would have seen that the federal government does not forget nor neglect to honour sacrifice made in national interest.

“The absorbed youths, with the asset they possess by way of detailed knowledge of the local geography and lore, are now the first line of defence against insurgency and criminality.

“This sort of community policing that the president has implemented will not only end Boko Haram’s reign of terror but will go a long way to help in identifying individuals with tendencies to launch future attacks,”he stressed.
He emphasised that the development deserves commendation for its uniqueness in solving the problems of what to do with the ex-members in a way that everyone emerged a winner.

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