The Akwa Ibom State Government has formally integrated 2,277 village youth presidents into its security architecture, in a sweeping grassroots initiative aimed at tightening community surveillance and improving intelligence gathering across all local government areas.

Governor Umo Eno announced the move at a strategic town hall engagement with the youth leaders at the Uyo Township Stadium, where he outlined a plan to “widen, deepen and retool” the state’s security framework by placing trusted community actors at the heart of early-warning and response systems.

According to the governor, the village youth presidents, drawn from every recognised community in the state, will undergo profiling and structured training coordinated through local governments. They are to work directly with the state Police Command, other security agencies and council chairmen, feeding real-time intelligence from their communities into formal security operations.

Eno stressed that the new role does not alter existing traditional or village leadership hierarchies, describing the youths instead as an operational layer within a broader community-based security network. To ensure proper coordination, he directed council chairmen to appoint supervisors for security in each local government area, tasked with harmonising the activities of the youth presidents and other local structures.

The new apparatus will be anchored by the Ibom Community Watch, envisioned as a bridge between residents, law enforcement and government. The governor said the goal is to close gaps in communication and trust that often hinder rapid response, ensuring “free flow of information and actionable intelligence” from villages to security agencies.

To reinforce the initiative, Eno ordered the expansion of the Police Quick Response Squad to cover all 10 federal constituencies in the state and donated 10 new Hilux vehicles to the Police Command to boost mobility and response time.

Key stakeholders at the event, including the Commissioner of Police, Baba Azare, and the Commissioner for Internal Security, retired Brigadier General Koko Essien, endorsed the strategy as a practical expression of community policing, arguing that sustainable security must be rooted in local participation and shared responsibility.

Speaking for the Forum of Village Youth Presidents, Itai James Abraham from Ikot Ekpene pledged the cooperation of the youths, describing their inclusion in the security framework as both an opportunity and a solemn responsibility to protect their communities.