Jonathan flays deplorable condition of Lagos Police College

Abidjan – President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday criticised the deplorable condition of the Police College in Lagos.

The president expressed disgust at the poor state of the institution during an unscheduled on-the-spot assessement visit.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the President paid the surprise visit to the institution on his way to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, for the ECOWAS extra-ordinary summit.

Abati told NAN correspondent on arrival at the venue of the summit in Abidjan that the President was “angry’’ over the deplorable state of infrastructure at the institution.

*Police officers

“Channels TV have been showing images from the Police College about the sorry state of the College.

“Some newspapers have also done some stories on this and really graphic story on the deplorable state of the College.

“The President was on his way to Abidjan. Apparently he must have watched those reports and read the stories.

“Those of us who were travelling with him were caught unaware because the plane was just diverted to Lagos.

“We came down and we were told we were going to the Police College, Ikeja.

“When we got there, you could see that people there were not prepared. There was even a big `Owambe’ party going-on in the premises.

“They were even erecting canopies for another party somewhere.

“The President then went round the place to see things for himself and he was quite angry that the institution could be in such a state.

“He saw that indeed there was a problem in terms of the quality of infrastructure in the place,’’ he said.

Abati said the President inspected classrooms, male and female hostels, toilets and the school surrounding.

“What you can be sure of is that the President having gone personally to see things for himself, he will take action, because the Policemen are very important.

“These are the people in charge of security. If they are going to go for training, the training must be in a place that humanises them, not an environment that dehumanises them,’’ he said.

The spokesman said neither the Minister of Police Affairs, Mr Caleb Olubolade, nor the Inspector of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, was aware of the visit. (NAN)