Security
THE Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has said that 40,000 Community Police Officers, CPOs, will be recruited across the country as the pathway towards bridging security gaps.
Speaking at the South West Geo-poiitical zone security Summit in Ibadan on Monday, Sept. 3, Adamu said: “We shall soon commence the implementation of the strategy in the South West and other parts of the country. Hopefully, the breakdown of the Community Policing deployment plan would cover the recruitment of a total of 40,000 Community Police Officers, CPOs, across the country.’’
He explained that the CPOs will be recruited from within the communities where the prospective applicants reside and an average of 50 CPOs are to be engaged in each of the 774 Local Government Areas.
“In addition, 1,300 CPOs will be drawn from professional bodies like the academics, Road Transport Unions, Artisans, Traders Associations, Religious Bodies, Women Unions, and Youth Organisations among others in order to ensure diverse representation.
“In relation to the South West, the CPOs shall be deployed to complement the Police in law enforcement functions within their localities by performing low-risk and non-sensitive policing functions.
“They will also act as liaisons between the Police and their communities. This policing architecture will free-up conventional police personnel that hitherto perform such functions and enhance our manpower profile in relation to deployment to frontline, operational duties in the South West and across the country,” he said.
According to him, when fully implemented, the Community Policing Strategy will bridge the gap between the police and the citizens in a manner that will enhance optimal, cost-effective, and sustainable law enforcement service delivery by the police.
Adamu said that the Summit was the second in the series of the geopolitical security Summits being facilitated by the Nigeria Police and that the first was held with the Executive Governors and strategic stakeholders in the North West geopolitical Zone on Aug. 1, 2019 in Katsina and that similar engagement would be held in the other remaining geopolitical zones subsequently.
He disclosed that the strategies jointly developed between the strategic community actors and the police, which are currently being implemented have been effective in addressing the identified security threats in the geopolitical zone.
“This is evidenced by the fact that since the meeting, the rate of these crimes has not only dropped drastically, several bandits have voluntary renounced crime, submitted their weapons and released several victims that had hitherto been kidnapped and held in their camps across the zone.
“A more significant outcome of the initiative is the enhanced trust between the communities and the police and a renewed determination to embrace the police as ‘their police’ who are committed to serving them. In consequence, there has been a remarkable increase in the volume and quality of pieces of criminal information shared by the citizens across the North West geopolitical zone with the local police and these are being optimally utilised to take the anti-crime war to the door steps of the criminals with resounding success,” he said.
Adamu announced that the security situation across the country has been stabilized and that there are isolated cases of kidnapping and armed robbery in the South West, particularly, along Benin-Ore-Lagos Highway and across Ondo state.
“The reality is that the current concerted operations of the Police and other security agencies across the country, particularly, along the Niger-Kogi-FCT-Kaduna-Katsina and Zamfara areas have engendered a dispersal and re-location of some of the criminals to new localities including the South West,” hesaid.
He noted that the ‘Operation Puff Adder’, which was launched as a strategy to stabilize the security profile in the country and other strategies emplaced since January 2019 have so far been a success story.
Adamu said that between January and August 2019, a total of 552 murder suspects were arrested with 66 such arrests effected in the South West.
He added that, 2,015 armed robbery suspects were arrested with 363 of the figure arrested in the South West, while 1,154 kidnapping suspects were also apprehended in various operations and that 147 of these were arrested in the South West.
“Furthermore, 1,183 suspected cultists have also been arrested with 425 of this figure apprehended in the South Western States.
“In relation to recoveries, 1,356 firearms of various calibre and descriptions were recovered in various intelligence-led operations by the Police with 277 of such recoveries made in the South Western part of the country. Similarly, 21,300 ammunition of various descriptions and calibre were recovered in various intelligence-led operations with the highest number of 5, 270 ammunition recovered from criminal syndicates in the South West including about 2,700 ammunition recovered in June, 2019 from a cross-border arms smuggling syndicate in Oyo State.
“Furthermore, 1,541 stolen vehicles were recovered with 482 of such recoveries achieved in the South West while a total of 837 kidnapping victim were rescued with 106 of such rescues achieved in the South West,” he added.
He urged the people to be determined to build a consensus and partner in condemning any act of criminality and resolving to work with the Police towards identifying, isolating and bringing the criminal elements within our communities to deserved justice regardless of their status, background, creed or gender as “doing otherwise will present a faulty and prejudiced foundation for correctly dissecting the trend and in evolving appropriate mitigating strategy”.
– Sept. 3, 2019 @ 12:15 GMT |
Tags: 000 Community Police Officers to be recruited soon – IGP 40
