By RESIDENTS APPLAUD STATE OF SECURITY IN IJEDE LCDA AS STAKEHOLDERS REVIEW SCORECARD
LCDA Chairman Urges all to get involved in Community Policing
Resident calls for the establishment of Ijede Model College
In its usual monthly practice of reviewing its scorecard on security matters; residents, stakeholders and security experts alike gathered today, Thursday 19th September 2019 at the Ijede Township Hall to commend the level of peace and tranquility enjoyed during the period under review in the Ijede Local Council Development Area, LCDA of the Ikorodu Division, Lagos State.
The jaw-jaw community meeting on security matters which also doubled as a community parley between the two electricity distribution company in the area; Ikeja Distribution Company and Egbin Power PLC featured a robust conversation on how to improve power supply and policing within its locality even though a lot has been done which according to residents was the reason for the current peace enjoyed in the community.
In his address as the convener and chief security officer of the LCDA, Honorable Salisu Fatiu Jimoh who is the chairman of the Council highlighted that the giant strides enjoyed in achieving the safety of lives and properties so far, is due to the unrelenting efforts and quality community operations of the various security agencies in the area from the Nigerian Police Force to the Nigerian Army 174 Battalion, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Commission to the Local Vigilante groups among other security outfits.
Honorable Salisu while stating the agenda of this month’s Security / Peace meeting which is happening coincidentally with a stakeholders meeting to address the current power challenge in the community, expressed that irrespective of the fact that Ijede is currently enjoying relative peace, the government of the day cannot be left alone to handle security matters of the community as security involves all especially residents with quality information that will help nip in the bud any security threat.
In his words,
“Government cannot be everywhere; they need us as community members for effective policing and complete eradication of insecurity in our community. Everyone as a matter of fact should be very vigilant and be their police by informing the authority on any suspicious movement or occurrence.
“Our agenda for this months Peace and Security meeting is to look at the current state of security in the community which is currently commendable, take a look at revenue generation, correct our disposition to the indiscriminate disposal of wastes and review the steps taken to alleviate the suffering of our people as a result of the current state of the 11 kilometers Itamaga-Ijede road.”
The graduate of Economics who came into power since 2017 while reviewing other key sectors, expressed dissatisfaction about the indiscriminate dump of refuse within the community as he stated that it was clearly against the Executive Order of the current administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu on sanitation and promised to sanction defaulters within the ambit of the law. He urged the people to patronize PSP as having to clear up the mess caused by these indiscriminate dumps has cost the LCDA more than necessary from its meagre resources.
On the issue of revenue generation, the LCDA chairman encouraged the people to do better in compliance to afford the Council more money to carry out laudable projects. He cautioned them to abstain from being rude or result to harassing officials in charge of collecting the necessary dues.
Meanwhile, in what seem to be the headache of most residents, Hon. Salisu assured the people that talks are ongoing with the state government to fix the Itamaga-Ijede road that has gradually become a nightmare to motorists and residents. He reiterated that it was necessary to reach out to the state government as renovating the road is now beyond the capacity of the council.
“we have submitted the Itamage-Ijede road as one of the roads in our LCDA in need of urgent government attention as our resources here cannot handle the road. We have also written for expedient actions to the Governor; Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Deputy Governor and Commissioner of Works; Mr. Kadiri Hamzat and the Assistant to the Governor on works.
“I even appealed to the governor’s wife the other day she visited our General Hospital of which she gave a very positive response. It is our hope that the road will be duly attended to in little or no time,” he revealed.
Going into the nitty-gritty of community policing, the Commander of Area N Command of the Nigerian Police Force, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sonubi Ayodele charged the people to do more in making the environment conducive enough for the police to operate. He hailed the efforts of the LCDA chairman, encouraging them to always support his team to keep ensuring the safety of lives of properties.
In his reaction, Pa Akilo who is a resident of the community for many years now, expressed satisfaction in the operation of the various security apparatus put in place by the government while he encouraged the chairman to establish a Security Trust Fund to be funded by establishments in the community as a CSR for the security agencies to do more.
Assessing the LCDA’s performance so far, Mr. Akilo decried the deplorable state of Luwasa Senior and Junior High School explaining that the classes are over populated. He also called for the establishment of a Model College to complement the proposed renovated Luwasa Senior and Junior High Secondary School and a Primary Healthcare Centre that will support the operation of the existing General Hospital. He finally charged the chairman to look into revenue expansion.
“The condition of our students in Luwasa Senior and Junior High Secondary School is very discouraging as you now have over 100 students in a classroom. There is need for us to have our own Model College in order to meet up with the realities of our increasing population.
“we also need a primary healthcare centre to support our General hospital which happened to be the only one in a LCDA in this division. Mr Chairman, I also want to urge you to expand your revenue base so you can do more, include those areas in levy collection that are currently not captured, Pa Akilo expressed.”
The stimulating forum had in attendance different stakeholders in the Council like representatives of the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, District Police Officer of Ijede, 174 Army Battalion, the Regent of Ijede; Chief Aliu Musediku, Odofin of Ijede: Otunba Babatunde Ogunmuyiwa, Vice-Chairman Ijede LCDA; Mrs Motunrayo Gbadebo Alogba, the Business Manager Ikeja Electricity Company; Mr. Famoroti Rotimi, the Section Head of Corporate Communications Egbin Power PLC; Mr Kingsley Okotie amongst other security personnel, LCDA officials, stakeholders and residents.
