An international non-governmental organisation, Search for Common Ground has retrained security agencies on violence and crime in Delta State.
The Search for Common Ground, with support from the European Union and other partners, held a two-day workshop in Asaba, Delta State.
The Director of Programmes, Search for Common Ground, Gift Ononwa stated that the ‘Multi-Stakeholder Consultative Engagement’ workshop organised for the people, security agencies and other stakeholders was a wrap-up of the project in Delta State.
She said, “The project spans 18 months in three states; Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa. In Delta we are working in 12 local government areas of Delta State, promoting peace.
“This project is being funded by the European Union to reduce criminality and violence and promote peace in our pilot communities in the Niger Delta region.
“I want the people of Delta State and Niger Delta at large to realize that the process of achieving peace is a collective responsibility. We want to see people of Delta State take up this initiative and sustain it after the programme.”
Speaking further, the Consortium Manager of Search for Common Ground, Mr Joshua Gonlur, during his presentation said that the theme of the workshop, ‘A Community-Centered Approach to Transforming Criminality and Violence in the Niger Delta’ was apt, noting that the organization is currently working in 12 local government areas in Delta State to bring peace to the communities.
The successes of the NGO includes setting up Community Peace Architecture, Local Government Peace Architecture and State Peace Architecture for early warning response to violence and criminality in the communities, training security agencies, journalists and other stakeholders.
Other participants, including Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe commended NGO for organizing the training workshop.
He said, “This program is in the form of a recap of one of the trainings Search for Common Ground has been organizing, training for security agencies.
“The issue of drug abuse has taken the centre of discussion today among the stakeholders because of the current high rate of the activities in the state.”
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