Aregbesola Tasks Interior Services to Improve Internal Security
The Federal Government has again charged security agencies under the Ministry of Interior to brace up in the fight against insecurity in line with the policy direction of the Federal Government which is improving security, revitalizing the economy and entrenching transparency in the conduct of government business.
The Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola gave this charge today when the Permanent Secretary, Barr. Georgina Ekeoma Ehuriah, MON officially handed over the affairs of the Ministry to him in his Office in Abuja.
Aregbesola, in his speech, titled, “WE MUST SET FORTH NOW,” revealed: “There is no denying the fact that we have internal insecurity, but it is not peculiar to us as a nation, it is like that all over the world, each nation with its own peculiarities, what is important is how we respond to the security challenges confronting us.”
“From antiquity and political philosophy, the primal responsibility of government is the welfare of the people, protection of lives and property and maintenance of peace. It is the foundational responsibility on which other responsibilities are built. This is the basis on which we campaigned and Nigerians voted for us. It is a sacred mandate we are fully determined to deliver on,” he stressed.
The Minister further called on the Services, officers and staff of the Ministry to join hands with the President Muhammadu Buhari led Administration in protecting lives and property of the citizens, in line with the Ministry’s mandate with a view to moving the country to the next level of socio-economic development.
Aregbesola said, ‘we must set forth now for an improved internal security’, adding, ‘Ours is to prevent crimes, as the basis of protecting lives and property, it will become so difficult to commit crime, once people know they cannot get away with it, so brace up for the task’, he emphasised.
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He pointed out that the Correctional Service should ensure that all the correctional centres across the country are habitable, comfortable and clean for inmates. Adding that inmates should be well fed and given proper health care so as to make transition to a new life very easy for them, in line with the new laws of the Service.
The Minister opined that the primary role of our correctional services should be, to make those who have the opportunity of returning to the society, become reformed, rather than turning them to becoming terrors to the society by abusing and brutalising them.
He also charged the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to ensure proper security of the nation’s borders, while calling on the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to improve on their intelligence gathering in the various communities.
Aregbesola who said that insecurity transcends kidnapping, banditry and other social vices but also includes food insecurity, natural disasters such as fire, therefore called on the Federal Fire Service (FFS) to ensure prompt response and prevention of all forms of fire disaster in the country.
Earlier, while presenting the handing over document to the new Minister, the Permanent Secretary, Barr. Georgina Ekeoma Ehuriah, MON, said: “This handing over note highlights the major policies, programmes and activities of the Ministry of Interior, which has immediate bearing on your statutory role as the chief policy formulator and adviser to the administration on internal security and public safety matters”.
Barr. Ehuriah added that, “all the major accomplishments that were recorded by the Ministry, under the former Honourable Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen (rtd) Abdulrahman Dambazau, and those few ones that took place during the brief period that I was in charge of the administration of the Ministry are contained herein.”
She that the mandate of the Ministry is to foster and ensure the maintenance of internal security and citizenship integrity for the promotion of good governance in the country.
SIGNED
Mohammed Manga
Director (Press & Public Relations)
For: Honourable Minister
