NOA seeks improved partnership with NURTW to curb insecurity
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has sought improved partnership with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in curbing insecurity across the country.
The Zonal Director, North Central Directorate, Mrs Priscilla Gondoalour said this on Thursday while paying a courtesy visit to the Kwara Council of the union in Ilorin.
Gondoalour said the road transport workers were major stakeholders needed to bring an end to insecurity bedevilling the country.
She said the drivers could help reduce insecurity to the barest minimum by giving useful and timely information to security agencies because they were always closer to the people.
” Road transport workers are as important as doctors and teachers because 90 percent of movement worldwide is by road; few are by air, water, rail.
“This meeting with you is because of your importance and relevance in almost every area of operation in this country and you have contact with different people daily.
“The challenge of insecurity confronting all of us, the risk is faced more by your people on a daily basis.
“So, we believe that partnering with you on the need to help join hands with the government to fight it out is imperative.
“We need collective action which means that we need to be patriotic first; and your members who encounters some of these mischief makers, need to supply security agencies with timely and useful information,” the Zonal Director said.
She said we must work collectively salvage the country from the present mess we are in, hence the need for the information to be passed across all the local governments that makes up the council.
Mrs Gondoalour further urged members of the union to promote tolerance, have respect for the rule of law and avoid tribalism, ethnic and religious sentiments.
In his response, the Chairman NURTW Kwara Council, Alhaji Razaq Ariwoola said tackling insecurity was now everyone’s business as we do not know who is next.
Ariwoola said the drivers were doing their best to help security agencies but their efforts were always truncated due to disclosure of the identity of the whistleblowers.
He said they have devised a means of reporting directly to the senior officers to safeguard the identity of their members.
The NURTW chairman added that efforts should be doubled to eradicate drug abuse as it is an enhancer of Social vices.
He further appealed to the judiciary to ensure that justice cannot be bought.
“If justice can be bought, we cannot have a just society, and if the judiciary continues this way, we cannot have a crime free society,” he said.
Ariwoola said the union will continue to enlighten its members to be security conscious. (NAN)