Anambra’s Quiet Policing Revolution: Why Residents Are Now Staying Out Till 4am
By Princess-Ekwi Ajide
For months, a quiet question has lingered across Anambra: What exactly is happening in the state that once struggled to keep its streets open past 9pm, yet now hums with life until dawn?
The answer, according to the State’s Commissioner of Police, Orutugu Ikioye, lie in a simple but radical shift, community policing done the Anambra way.
When I spoke the Commissioner, he was energised, almost relieved. The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, had just reaffirmed community policing as Nigeria’s security priority. But for the CP Orutugu, this was not a new directive; it was validation.
“It should have been titled Community Policing: The Anambra Model,” he said with a laugh. “Because that is exactly what we are already doing.”
His model is deceptively simple: Ask communities what they need, instead of assuming what they need.
And the results? Almost unbelievable, until you see them.
In Awka, Abakaliki Street, once a social hub forced into silence by 8 or 9pm, now stays alive till about 4am. Music, lights, hawkers, families, life has returned because the residents know the CP’s patrol team is on standby.
That confidence, he said, is the true weapon.
“I’ve achieved more policing in Anambra without guns than when we carried guns,” he admitted.
“People are even surrendering their guns. They tell us, we don’t need them anymore.”
But beneath the optimism is a tension: the yuletide is coming, Anambra’s busiest, noisiest, most unpredictable season.
And the Commissioner knows that peace must not just be celebrated; it must be protected.
To stay ahead, he has agreed to a one-day security dialogue with residents, a “romantic discussion with Ndi Anambra,” as he cheekily called it, to ensure the festive season is crime-free.
Time is ticking, and every conversation, every community insight, could shape the safety of millions who will flood the state in December.
As the yuletide inches closer, the question that opened this story returns, stronger:
Can a policing model built on trust, not force, carry Anambra safely through its most demanding season?
If the CP Orutugu’s vision holds, the answer may again be found in the streets, well-lit, bustling, and open far beyond midnight, proof that community policing, done right, is not just a strategy, but a quiet revolution.
He is optimistic that the 2027 general election will be a repeat of the Anambra governorship election which he said, took him months to plan, preparing the minds of the people, ahead of the election, if the Anambra model is copied for the whole country.
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