BY VICTOR NWEGEDE
Ebonyi State Commissioner for Capital City and Urban Development, Barr Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi on Monday called all and sundry to passionately work towards peace building across the nation to reduce criminal elements posing threats against security of lives and property in the society.
He made this call in Abakaliki while addressing newsmen on the World Peace Day, marked today.
Nwebonyi who condemned the continuous rise on the security challenges of the country, advocated for aggressive campaign against social vices and all sorts of criminal activities beginning from family level.
According to him, bandits, Boko Haram, killer-herdsmen and other criminals rocking the society are the common enemies of the nation and demanded that a collective effort should be made to raid them off from the human environment.
"On the issue of banditry in all over the society, it calls for everybody's concern. So many are playing politics with it, but I want to let the whole world know that it is beyond that. It is a common problem and we should come up as a people - the citizens of Nigeria by joining hands to fight it, because these bandits don't know whether you are in a party 'A' or 'B.' If unknown gunmen as they so called, are attacking people here and there, you can always adduce blame, that it is a fault of the government or the party in power - it's not so but they are just our common enemies.
"The bandits, Boko Haram, herdsmen are common enemies of the nation and we must come together as a people - the citizens of Nigeria to fight them because this country belongs to all of us.
"Let's come together and fight these evils, they are common evils and in fact, they have become a serious threat to human existence. Therefore, we must come together as the citizens of this great country to fight these evils because it is the only way to guarantee the future of our children," Nwebonyi advocated.
He urged stakeholders to understand peace as a basic requirement for every society to thrive in terms of development, noting that, a society without peace would record no development anywhere.
"And relating this to the security challenges we have today in our country Nigeria, it calls for everybody's attention.
"We should also know that for us to achieve peace in our villages, communities, local government areas, states and in the entire country, we should not leave it with the government alone.
"Every stakeholder has one or two roles to play and for us to enjoy such universal peace, it starts from our individual families, because it's only when there's peace in our families, that peace can be escalated to the community level, the local government level, the state level and to the entire nation.
"So, I want to use this opportunity to call all and sundry to support the government to ensure a very peaceful and harmoninous society," the Commissioner advised.
