Discussion
Details
The increase in crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping and insurrection in the South-East region has led to the deployment of more security operatives, thereby heightening the tendency for conflict between security forces and citizens. As part of our laudable initiatives towards peace-building and promoting cooperation between security agencies and citizens, we are using this town hall meeting to enhance productive engagement to strengthen the synergy in preventing and combating crime. The meeting serves as a veritable forum for personnel of security agencies and civil society to dialogue on issues that trigger misunderstanding, mistrust and conflict between them with the goal of improving the relationship. Through this forum, personnel of security agencies would have an improved understanding of the importance of respectful cooperation with citizens, while citizens would improve understanding of their roles in security management especially in information sharing, vigilance and cooperation with security agencies. The town hall meeting is one of the cardinal contributions of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung towards supporting the Security Sector Reform in Nigeria by promoting information sharing and cooperation in order to improve the trust, confidence and relationship between citizens and security agencies. This program is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.