By PETER DURU

MAKURDI—Acting Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, has vowed to check and prosecute police officers who perpetrate “organised corruption” and other forms of illegalities .

Abubakar also assured to “return the police to the people instead of making the people regret having the police as an integral institution that deviates from its constitutional role of protection of lives and property.”

Benue State Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent Ejike Alaribe,  said this while conveying IGP’s stance on corruption in the force to over 1,000 officers and members of the rank and file of the Gboko Area Command in continuation of the nationwide briefing of Police Commands by Police Public Relations Officers, PPROs, as directed by the IGP.

Alaribe said the police boss has also directed an immediate stop to all forms of illegal detentions, dehumanising treatment of suspects and harassment of Nigerians by the police.

According to Alaribe, the IGP also warned that any violation of the new order would be met with stiff penalties including dismissal from the force.

Abubakar said: “We cannot be said to be fighting criminals when on our part we are not clean. That is the more reason why the much-needed reforms we are talking about must start from within.

”We are determined to ensure international best practices in the act of policing in this country in order to make the force more responsive to the yearnings of all Nigerian.”

He also urged officers and men to ensure strict observance of the fundamental human rights of  Nigerians in the discharge of their constitutional responsibilities, stressing that constitutional rights remain the basis for the renewed onslaught against all forms of criminality by the police.

The IGP further directed intermittent inspection of all police cells in the country by journalists to checkmate cases of illegal detentions and dehumanizing treatment of suspects in the custody of the police in any part of the country warning that any command that flouts the order would be sanctioned appropriately.