NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN SOCIETIES TASKS GOV ON SECURITY, PEACE
By Ijeoma Anorue, Lagos

November 13, 2003 – (This Day - Lagos) The National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) has called on the Lagos State government to tackle potential areas of conflicts, ethnic or otherwise, that may lead to a break down of law and order in the state. NCWS made the call in Lagos yesterday, at a conference it organised in collaboration with Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) and United States Agency for Information and Development (USAID).

NCWS cited Lagos as the economic nerve centre of the country which for so many years played host as Nigeria's capital, maintaining that Lagos State still ranks first among equals in the socio-economic and political of the nation. The women group explained that the conference security had become necessary in recognition of the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos, which makes it a volatile environment where the unimagined and least expected social dislocations continue to be the order of the day.

The organisation stated that the recent ethnic cum religious crisis between the Hausa and their Yoruba host at Idi-Araba, Mushin, Agege, and Mile 12, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) versus Ajegunle residents; the frequent students unrests on campuses; the many senseless killings of innocent citizens by reckless and unscrupulous policemen through 'accidental discharges or deliberate murder due to refusal of bus conductors to give bribe to policemen at check points; ritual killings; armed robbery; fraud; arson and unprecedented road accidents; all combined to put Lagos State on top of the chart as the most unsecure and volatile state in the country.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200311130557.html