By Kingsley Omonobi

As Nigeria continues to battle organized crimes and other forms of criminality, the Chairman, Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase, (IGP Rtd) has called for renewed vigor and inclusiveness of all segments of the society in the fight so as to achieve the required results.

Dr. Arase statedd that as a people we must rise and stand firm against those who threaten “the sovereign integrity of the Nigerian State” even as he noted that “no security Agency can deliver on its mandate without the support of the people”.

He spoke at the International Symposium on countering  organized crimes  in Africa held in Abuja.

The PSC Chairman who was represented by Bar. Brighten Saagwe, Director, Planning, Research and Statistics of the Commission declared that “our will, therefore must be strong because our faith lies in the indivisibility of Nigeria”

Dr. Arase emphasized that for the Security Agencies, “It has become not only a statutory mandate but a moral imperative to re-enact our old fighting force, re-strategise and redesign our tactics and promptly arrest and contain the growing insecurity challenge in our country”.

He said that on no account should “we shy away from whatever becomes necessary within the ambit of the law to provide the needed security for the citizens.

 He noted that terrorism or crime has no conscience  and spares no one, whether rich, poor, educated or uneducated and therefore  “no matter what it takes, let us stand together and win this war against organized crime and terrorism “.

The PSC Chairman  appealed  that the supreme task for our generation “is to give hope to the hopeless, strength to the weak and protection to the defenceless”.

He said organized crimes, no doubt, have negative  effects on economic development of nation’s and the need to fight same need not to be over-emphasized “.

“Mankind must put an end to organised crime or organized crime will put an end to mankind” and on the ” keyboard of life, let us as a nation always keep a finger on the escape key to survive” he said.

He advised that in this war against organized crime, there should be more synergy between security agencies as well as prompt criminal  intelligence-sharing. 

He also suggested that Government should adopt a mix of both kinetic and non-kinetic approach for effective and result oriented  security management.

Dr. Arase promised that the Police Service Commission under his watch shall collaborate with other agencies of Government to fight organized crime in Nigeria.

The symposium with theme:  Drug Crimes, Terrorism, Arms  Trafficking, Marine Crimes, Environmental crime and auto theft was put together by the Centre for Fiscal Transparency  and Integrity Watch and other partners.