The Enugu State Security Trust Fund has expressed its willingness to collaborate with traditional rulers in the fight against insecurity and other forms of criminality in the state.

Dr Ike Chioke, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, ESSTF, Dr Ike Chioke, stated this during a stakeholders’ consultative meeting with the state traditional rulers council on the proposed Enugu State Security Trust Fund.

The event which took place at the House of Chiefs Chamber, Enugu State House of Assembly Complex, on Thursday, had traditional rulers in Enugu in attendance.

Mr Chioke said the board considered it appropriate to engage and sensitise the royal fathers to the objectives of the fund.

He urged them to key into the project and assist the government in fighting criminality in their respective communities, noting that security was everyone’s business.

Mr Chioke explained that the ambitious vision of Governor Peter Mbah to grow the state’s economy from $4.4 billion to $30 billion by 2031 would be difficult to achieve unless everyone worked together to address insecurity in the state.

The chairman added that the state government slated February 13 for the launch of the Enugu State Security Trust Fund, aimed at mobilising resources in cash and kind from both the public and private corporate organisations.

According to him, the Board of Trustees is stepping up its engagement and enlightenment efforts to ensure that key stakeholders are aware of the fund’s objectives prior to its launch.

“The security trust fund is designed as a private/public partnership between the people and the state, such that each one of us contributes to security as part of our daily activities. We need to build and sustain security architecture around the entire state, which is the purpose of the trust fund,” he said.

Speaking, the state Commissioner for Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Matter, Okey Ogbodo, said the traditional rulers occupied prominent positions as the chief security officers of their communities.

He said, “So the state government thought it wise to inform them about the policies aimed at prioritising the welfare of the people, especially pertaining to security”.

He stressed that the royal fathers were responsible for sensitising their communities, encouraging them to buy into the security trust fund so that the state’s indigenes in the diaspora could visit their villages without fear of attacks.

Also speaking on behalf of the traditional rulers, the Chairman of the Enugu Traditional Rulers Council, Igwe Asadu, praised Mr Mbah’s visionary leadership and expressed satisfaction with the state’s cutting-edge security infrastructure.

Mr Asadu insisted that security was a collective endeavour that must be supported by the traditional rulers’ council as a whole, pledging the support of the royal fathers.

“On behalf of the traditional rulers and principal officials, we endorse this initiative since it aims to assist the governor in protecting our children, the state, investors, and tourists to the state,” Mr Asadu said.

(NAN)