By Dayo Johnson

AKURE— THE Police Command in Ondo State said it has trained 160 personnel on intelligence gathering to tackle security challenges across the state.

Declaration open a three-day training on Intelligence Gathering for personnel drawn from all the police divisions in the state, the Police Commissioner, Wilfred Afolabi explained that intelligence gathering and firmness are crucial for ensuring a proactive measure is taking to leading to a peaceful state

Afolabi, who spoke on the theme ‘Basic Intelligence Course’, said: “The Command under my watch is indeed focusing on enhancing intelligence gathering to tackle security challenges across the state.

“Intelligence gathering is one of the most important section that is instrumental to breakthrough when it comes to policing and it’s so unfortunate that it’s one aspect that is so neglected.

“When I was the Assistant Commissioner of Police, OC Intelligence in Lagos State, it gave me the opportunity to know that wherever I find myself, I should pursue the subject of intelligence gathering holistically.

“So, what we see happening today did come by accident. And to put the icing on the cake, it falls in line with the agenda of our Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun’s agenda.

“The IGP too, feels so concerned about the subject of intelligence and just two weeks ago, he was in Ilorin to revamp the intelligence school.

“Part of his agenda, too is on capacity building because we can’t be talking about professionalism, and then we exclude training.

“Intelligence gathering remains the cornerstone of effective policing, serving as the foundation upon which operational efficiency and successful law enforcement activities are built.

“You may not see the effects in the shortest time because training has what they call long-lasting effect now, it may be when I finally leave this place, but one thing I can tell you is that we are laying a long-lasting foundation which will go a long way to address the security challenges we are facing today.

“When I did what they call system analysis, I discovered that there was nothing like intelligence when I arrived here.”