Hon. Kingsley Uwagbale, a public safety security consultant, is the Edo State Commissioner for Public Safety and Security. He speaks with Edward Oseghe, Iyayi Owegie and Jennifer Osadoh on the mandate of his ministry and what the ministry has done so far to make Edo State safe and secure to attract investors and boost the state’s economy.
From its name, we know that the Ministry of Public Security and Safety is mandated to guarantee safety for all, but could you tell us more about the work that the ministry does?
I’m sure you know that safety encompasses everything, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Security, which is why they tell you to be safe because security is part of safety. My ministry is essentially involved in public safety and security, where we are aligned in four major segments, four major pillars of the foundation for the ministry.
The first is emergency response, where we handle disaster management, where we handle natural forces management, including floods, and accidents. That agency is handled by an agency called SEMA.
If you notice in the year 2023, you didn’t hear much about floods because the ministry and the agency have done quite a lot to be proactive to ensure that we manage floods. A flood is a natural disaster. So you know it is coming and you do your best to mitigate it and plan.
We’ve done all that and we’re grateful to God that the flood last year did not surpass our expectations and predictions, our plans of mitigation and our plan of preparedness paid off, because normally you have predictions, but again, these are natural forces. You can only plan. All we are doing now is just monitoring how things go and respond.
We have the second leg that is involved in inter-agency synergy. When you talk about security, one sure way to handle security is to have all the agents of government involved in security to work together, we call them first responders. Once they work together, you have achieved 70 per cent of security. You use fewer resources because they are working together. For instance, husband and wife are fighting and I send the police, when I can send vigilante, I can’t send DSS to people who are fighting. Say thieves break into someone’s house and we will send the vigilantes who will give us the feedback. We don’t have to deploy everybody.
When agencies of government are working together, we use fewer resources, we have more intelligence, and then we can achieve more. This area is handled by the Chief Security Officer of the state. He handles that part and we work together.
Then there’s a third one, which is the Public Safety Commission, which we are working on now to set up. That one has not fully taken place. For instance, nobody talks about what happens before they organize events. You go to events, who checks the event centres? Do we have to wait until people collapse on the stage? Do we wait for the stage to become overloaded before we react? How do people park their cars on the road? How do they build houses? People open hotels, nowhere to park cars.
My ministry is working on a policy, on a process whereby moving forward, if any organisation or anybody wants to organize an event, they will have to pass through us. We need to know their plan. Where’s the restroom? After every programme, people cannot pass because people have defecated everywhere. Where’s your ambulance? That is the public safety aspect.
We are so grateful to God that we do not have high-rise buildings yet. The issue of the collapse is not a big deal, but we have to plan. The top arm of my ministry is that part that deals with public safety.
You see some people turn just a bedroom into a school. Yes, you can set up a school anywhere, but is it convenient? Why should you go there? In some streets, people just park cars and block the road. Should that be the case? So that’s part of my agency that is yet to take off. But we are working behind the scenes to get it running this year. Then people will realize that you cannot just park cars anywhere anymore. In Edo State, you have to park your car on your property. If that car breaks down, take it to a mechanic workshop and not leave it on the road, because broken down cars on the road are risks. Apart from this, anybody can run into. A lot of people have died because they ran into broken-down vehicles on the road.
If you are going to have a compound you’re not planning to build immediately, you are expected to fence your compound and make sure it’s not bushy. I don’t want hoodlums staying in an uncompleted building owned by you. We’re going to ensure that you are held responsible for your building. If hoodlums are operating from your building, then we will take back your building, not seize it, but we’ll ensure that we manage who stays in your house. Those are safety issues we need to do proactively.
The last one is the intelligence gathering; the command and control centre, which was launched in December. The control centre ensures that everybody can call in. We also launched two short codes, 739 and 112, for emergencies on that same day. Once you’re in any part of Edo State, if you have an emergency, you can call those numbers and people will respond to you right away. If you can’t call, God forbid somebody is trying to break your head, and you start shouting or making calls, they will break it quicker and faster. So, you can send a distress message, we will see it and respond promptly.
We also have state-of-the-art cameras at strategic parts of Edo State now, where we can begin to see how things are done, and of course, we have other equipment; you may not need to call the police or the fire service anymore. The idea of saying you called them and there was no response does not happen anymore. Now you’re calling to a central base. That’s where they will dispatch to the police, let’s say, DPO, go there. If the DPO is compromised, it’s not his call anymore because we’re going to call back and say, DPO, two hours ago we sent you somewhere, where’s the feedback? That makes everybody responsible.
The command control is like a mandate now to all agents of the security forces, we call them the first responders, the Police, the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Civil Defence, and the Fire Service to be alert. You are not calling the Fire Service anymore, now you are calling a control centre. There’s a fire in XYZ building, they would call and we say, head of the Fire Service, respond, they would then respond.
We’re going to be analyzing why they don’t respond. What are the issues? Is it logistics? Is it a human factor? What is the problem? They will deal with it because everything you are doing is an ongoing process.
Edo State is robust because it is at the centre of most intersections. You can’t go to the East without passing through Edo.
With all of these in place, how do you go about enforcement?
If you understand the personality of the Governor very well, he is not a draconian leader, neither am I. I’m looking forward to a situation whereby we do preventive security, than reactive security.
We want to get to a point where people are engaged and do things right. As part of the programme when we launched, we had a panel session where the Attorney General of the state was a speaker. We needed to ask how quickly people are tried for offences. If it takes several months, there’s a problem. Can we have a different kind of court where people can be tried for those kinds of offences quickly? That is the enforcement.
If we say do not put this thing here, and you put it there, then we must lay down the consequences and then we follow the consequences as enforcement. We will also ensure that we’re not just going to be arresting for fun. If we arrest you after the advice, then we’re going to follow through, so you can serve as a deterrent to others.
Yes, there will be proper enforcement by the law for the law. Some are civil crimes. If somebody beats traffic, I may not be a lawyer, but if you beat traffic, I’ll make you pay for it. Instead of me spending money and time to arrest you, lock you up, feed you, and all that, I’ll make you pay for it and I move on.
We’re working with the Attorney General of the State to also see how we can look at how we enforce, so we enforce with civility. We’re looking at enforcement as a major tool too because it is one way to encourage investors to be able to have a good stay in a safe environment, so they can come and invest. However, if you choose not to, our response will be swift and vehement.
So enforcement is something I stress. We’re going to enforce. Besides, we’re going to enforce it also by technology. If you beat traffic, we will show you that you beat traffic, and then we will make sure you pay for beating traffic. If you beat traffic too frequently, it means you are either not mentally sound or something is wrong, they should withdraw your licence.
What are your plans in terms of orientation, awareness and enlightenment to the people?
Security is first and foremost a feeling. We advise people to also be safe. Your first security is you. We are going to keep you safe. People are hungry across the world, not just in Nigeria. The global economy is in distress. Take care of your security. Be careful where you go to. If you think a place is not safe, you don’t have to go there.
From the Presidency, there was this drive that offices should have a safety and security department, and a safety and security desk in the formal sector. What are the plans to take it up to the informal sector?
Just to add, we are engaging every agency of government and non-agency of government. We are talking to CAN (the Christian Association of Nigeria) and we have advised them to form their own Chief Security Officers (CSOs), we are encouraging all the churches to have them and we are training them. We are also talking with all the guards and security guards of other companies. We want to know who they are, what they do, and what they’re doing. I don’t think it’s more about creating a desk. It is more of having a system to call especially now that we have launched our short code.
There’s a policy which we are working on, we’re working on our CCTV policies, where every agency and everybody in general, where there are more than ten people in a facility you need to have a CCTV. If you notice abroad, when there’s a crime, they play records because there are cameras everywhere and it should work. We’re going to encourage that. I don’t know what the place of the law is on that, but we want to ensure that happens urgently. Once we have done our part, everybody can then do their part, and then that becomes a major way.
The idea is to reduce crime because you cannot eliminate crime 100 percent anywhere. After all, crime is sometimes a bit of a mental problem. Even children steal their father’s money.
What else would you like to tell Edo people?
First, thank you for being good people. I would like to reassure Edo people that we are doing a lot behind the scenes to keep Edo safe. The whole idea is that we are tying security to the economy. When a place is safe, people are more likely to invest, and when they invest, we have more money, we have more businesses, we have more employment. So a secure state is an investment destination.
Edo residents should rest assured that we are doing the best we can to make these things happen. But we seek their cooperation as well. We want them to cooperate with us.
If you see something, you say something. Since we have launched our numbers now, you shouldn’t be afraid anymore that anybody will report you. They say, ‘I called the police, they came after me.’ You’re calling a system that will respond.
Our numbers are open 24 hours. I’m commissioner, my numbers are open, and I’m here to serve all my members.
Give us information, trust us with information. We are neutral, we are not partisan, we are non-political. Security does not know who is good and who is bad. Security does not know this party or that party. Someone throws a bomb here and it hits everybody, we just want everybody to be safe.
Let me emphasize again that the biggest tool for security in an African context is effective collaboration. You see when agents of government involve the police, the army, the DSS, and the vigilante, the communities unite, and crime is less, it is that synergy.
Even the people, the criminals now know that there’s a strong security collaboration. That even if you escape, you cannot escape for too long, because which community do you want to stay after the crime? Every community has vigilante operating and they are doing intelligence synergy.
