The Association of Igbo Town Unions (ASITU) has said for he insecurity situation in the south east to be a thing of the past, the region’s governors must collaborate with various town unions to set up a well defined security outfit.
ASITU stated that the town unions are at the grassroots and understand the best way to tackle insecurity in their communities and tasked the governors to partner with town unions.
National President of ASITU, Chief Emeka Diwe, disclosed that his group had made presentations in various fora on how best to reduce insecurity in the zone.
He also noted that part of the problem of insecurity in the zone is the continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and called for his release.
He said: “We have stated severally that any security strategy that does not integrate the peculiar nature of the people in its operations will not work. It is only a locally developed and modernised security system that incorporates the ubiquitous town unions that will reduce the incidence of insecurity in the South East region.
“This is so because the town unions are at the grassroots and understand how it works.
“We have also said it loud and clear that most of the insecurity, particularly, those with their root in the sit-at-home and agitation for an independent state of Biafra are attributed to the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kalu. This is why we said that the federal government should release him to us and then reassess the security situations in the South East. It will not cost them anything to do so.
“The South East governors should partner with the town unions to get security rightly in their various states. They should not play politics with it but must be sincere in dealing with the situation head-on if they want to tackle the problem.”
