The apex socio-cultural organisation of Ilorin indigenes, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), has said that it was ready to collaborate with the state government and the law enforcement agencies to arrest what it described as growing insecurity in the emirate.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin on its security summit, entitled: "Challenges of Insecurity in Ilorin Emirate and the role of the community," the national president of the association, Alhaji Abdulhamid Adi, said the community was concerned about how the security situation became worse compared to what obtained in the last two decades.

He also said that the community was worried about the rate at which insecurity had spread across all divides and the impact it has on the safety of life and property, development and investment.

"More worrisome is the high-level impunity in the commission of crime, the proliferation of arms and other means of wasting lives, the emergence of hitherto unknown crimes and habits in our environment, the helplessness of the general public, and the seeming incapability of government," he said.

The IEDPU national chairman, who said such factors as unemployment, poverty, pervasive inequality, loss of value systems, weak security system, use of drugs that is becoming fashionable among the youths, religious conflicts, political volatility might not be unconnected with insecurity and crime, added that the association planned the summit to complement the efforts of government in tackling insecurity.

He, however, said that the community was of the opinion that one of the cardinal responsibilities of government in ensuring public safety had a hitch and that the principal organs in maintaining law and order were over-stretched, adding that the criminal justice system was a little weak while the rule of law was collapsing.

He also said that the summit would focus on how to rid the emirate of hoodlums, cultists, ritual killers, kidnappers, drug sellers and other crime agents.

"We want to come up with ways of reducing opportunities to commit crime and lessen the motivation for crime.

"We want to come up with crime prevention measures that will be complementary to government's efforts through law enforcement," he stated.