Against the backdrop of checkmating crime, and criminal tendencies among youths arising from the problems of massive unemployment in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the federal government is emplacing appropriate framework that will facilitate the employment of an extra 100, 000 Police officers.
Additionally, he said government is to establish properly trained and equipped federal anti- terrorism, multi-agency task force that will effectively address the challenge of Boko Haram and any form of insurgency in a sustainable manner.
Speaking at the one day National Security Summit organized by the Nigerian Police force and Sun Newspapers in Abuja with the theme ‘Community partnership approach to internal security and crime management’ yesterday, Buhari said, “In order to further strengthen the security of the public space, consideration is being given to the expansion of the CCTV Monitoring System across major cities and towns in the country while police accountability mechanism will be strengthened”.
According to the President, “The need for community input to policing and crime management in Nigeria has even become more imperative considering our current national security challenges in which kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, transnational crimes, terrorism and other organized crimes have evolved to threaten our national values and developmental strides”.
“While it is understandable that unemployment, illiteracy, radicalization, negative peer group influence, substance abuse and erosion of family and moral values are social factors that underline criminal tendency, the reality remains that the task of addressing these challenges is that of parents, community and the state”.
Disclosing that efforts are being made to enhance the operational capacity of officers of the Nigeria Police force through tailor made training programme that will give them the right civil orientation in their roles as guardians of the constitution, the President said his administration will encourage the development of state-level community policing under a model that will integrate members of the community to policing functions at the grassroots level.
Commending the leadership of the police force for appreciating the yearning of members of the public by ordering the dismantling of police road blocks which have consistently constituted a dark side of policing and object of discord between the police and the citizenry, Buhari said the initiative of the IGP to introduce the ‘Safer Highway Motorized Patrol Scheme’ and deploy 555 patrol vehicles along all major highways to fill the void created has reassured the citizens of their safety and security”.
In his remarks, Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar called on the federal and state governments to face the task of reforming and re-positioning our national institutions; including the Nigeria Police force and related agencies.
“It is imperative, to ensure that our security agencies truly become 21st century organizations able to discharge their mandates effectively and efficiently.
We should be able to cater to their operational needs and to the welfare of their members. When we state that they serve and protect, we should mean it by word and deed”.
“Secondly, our national security agencies must join the crusade against corruption, with commitment and determination. Regardless of how well trained and equipped an organization is, it cannot attain its full potential if it allows corruption and corrupt elements to grace its corridors.
Those who conspire to corrupt our national institutions from the outside must face the same consequences as those who do it from within”, the Sultan said.
VANGAURD
