High crime rate worries NGO boss

The Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), has expressed concern about the rising wave of crime and armed conflicts across the country.

The Executive Director, PRAWA, Dr Uju Agomoh, told our correspondent on Friday in Abuja that the senseless killings and destruction of property was worrisome.

Speaking on the proliferation of private security companies in the ECOWAS region, she said the development was disturbing.

According to her, this has led to increased cases of human rights abuse, high number of illegal and unlicensed private security companies, and poor security service delivery.

Agomoh recalled that PRAWA recently held a workshop on the Validation of Baseline Study of Private Security Regulation in the ECOWAS Region.

“The aim is to x-ray the issues with the aim of holistically tackling the problem.”

“PRAWA in partnership with African Security Sector Network and the support of Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance conducted the study.”

“This is to strengthen private security governance through the enhancement of knowledge on the challenges and opportunities facing private companies.”

“It will also promote effective oversight and accountability mechanism through the implementation of regional policy frameworks,” she said.

Agomoh noted that the research which was conducted in five countries within the region revealed that private security companies played critical roles in the security architecture of member states.

She said that the research also showed that weak accountability and oversight mechanism, ineffective regulations and outdated legislations had made it difficult to address issues of human rights abuses.

This he said included illegal and unlicensed private security companies, as well as poor security service delivery in the region.

“It is also important to state that we are open to receiving contributions that would further enrich this report from other countries where this research could not be conducted as a result of one constraint or the other,” she said.

PRAWA was established to promote safety and security in the African community by creating humane criminal justice system.

This is achieved through service delivery to the community in general to particular vulnerable groups, such as prisoners or ex-prisoners torture survivors.