By Oladapo Udom
The Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State has remained peaceful because of deployment of traditional security systems along with conventional security operatives.
The Chairman of the local government, Mr Babatunde Hunpe, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Badagry.
Hunpe said the local council had continued to explore “the wisdom of traditional institution and that of the conventional security agencies” to develop security strategies.
“We don’t discuss security issues openly but every month we meet with the traditional institutions as well as the conventional security agencies to discuss issues.
“If some people want to bring insecurity, whatever they see, they take,” he said.
Hunpe said that the deployment had made the ancient town to be free from insecurity.
“We are working hand-in-hand with the police, army, navy, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps as well as Zangbeto, our traditional security system, to ensure that we have security within our local government area,” he said.
The chairman said that Zangbeto had been in place before the coming of Europeans to Nigeria.
He told NAN that his administration, which would be a year old soon, had created jobs for 500 non-pensionable staff and some professionals to ensure availability of manpower.
“I inherited 266 non-pensionable staff who rarely came to office and whose purpose to my vision for Badagry was not defined, so I disengaged them to reset the system.
“We immediately employed 181 persons so as not to create a vacuum in the system especially in sensitive areas such as the primary health centres, environmental services and security system.
“We also employed some professionals such as doctors and nurses to help to manage primary health centres properly because most of the non-pensionable staff we have there are assistants,” he said.
The chairman said that Badagry had 15 primary health centres and some of them would need to be operating for 24 hours daily.
“When I came into office, only one primary healthcare centre was operating 24 hours daily while the others were running eight hours daily.
“We thank God that before we celebrate one year in office, seven primary health centres out of the 15 will be running 24-hour services,” he said.
Hunpe said that his administration had started remodelling primary schools within the community to provide a conducive learning environment.
“At present, we are remodelling the entire compound of LA Primary School, and once done, we will move to Muslim Primary School and Ansarudeen Primary School to do the same thing.” (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Ijeoma Popoola