The campaign to reform, transform and repair the damaged image of  the Nigeria Police Force, and make it a people’s friendly force by the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, may have gained some footnotes  as other senior police officers are  keying into his vision in their various commands.

The new Assistant Inspector-General of Police in Charge of Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos, AIG Mamman Tsafe,  has said that police officers who can not move with this resolve  should better surrender their uniform and leave the force. He spoke with Vanguard Crime Guard recently, where he reiterated his readiness to transform  the police  in his zone into a community friendly force.  Excerpts:

Plans for Lagos and Ogun states
We are grateful to God that the two states have achieved a lot in crime fighting and prevention when compared to other states in the country. I want to assure you that we will deploy more strategic measures in ensuring  that we effectively control crime.  More so, we have decided to parley with all other stakeholders in our communities who are actually the owners of their terrain. In that process, we will exploit their knowledge of the terrain, and it will enable us fight crime efficiently within their society. In short, I am talking about community policing, which means we are going to fight crime using the people of that community.

Our policemen are all advised to wake up and face the challenges ahead. If you know you can not move with this resolve, then you better surrender your uniform and leave the force. We are only ready to work with officers who are committed. Your level of commitment will be constantly assessed and when we find you unfit, we will kick you out of the force and work with those who are ready to work with us.

Members of the public are fully part of our strategy; we implore them to always avail us with information that will enable us combat crime effectively.  Information gathering and dissemination are highly important when fighting crime. I have directed the commissioner of police in Lagos and Ogun States to ensure that they are visible within their states.  Surely, visibility policing will be enhanced by way of patrolling, guarding of strategic places and to ensure that policemen reports and leave their duty post at the right time.

Officers found sleeping on duty will be punished because Lagos and Ogun State are no longer comfortable for them.  For the criminals, we call on them to reform, or we will deal with them. The two states are no longer comfortable for them. The commissioners of police of these states have been directed to conduct constant raiding of black spots and vulnerable areas, while motorized and vehicular patrol will be intensified. I have also decided that I will be personally involved in the patrols myself.

Like my Inspector-General of Police who is also a patrol man. So, all police officers of any rank should consider themselves as ‘maiguard or patrollers’. There are no more seating in the office while doing police work. Officers must go out. All Divisional Police Officers, Area Commanders and Commissioners of Police have been asked not to seat in the comfort of their offices while doing the job. They are expected to go out and patrol their streets and cities and ensure that they are visible within the society.

And for cases that are being investigated; departments that are investigating any case must be careful of the cases that they are investigating because they have to differentiate between civil and criminal cases.  Cases that are civil must be treated as civil and   criminal cases  must adequately and diligently be investigated. The issue of bail, which has continuously damaged the image of the force must be addressed.   I have instructed the CPs to ensure that bail is completely free.

AIG, Mamman Tsafe

And,  I also want members of the public to stop giving money, gifts or anything to secure their bails, because when a bail is granted, it is the right of  any  person who sought for it.  We want members of the public to know that there are  cases that are bailable and there are cases that are not. Members of the public should allow us carry out adequate investigation and charge the case to court.

Please do not go and pressurise officers to grant you bail where you know legally that the offense is not bailable,and police officers who are handling  cases should know that arrested suspects  should not be detained beyond 24 hours. Any officer found flaunting this law will be dealt with. That’s why I called on all  officers to be up and doing, to face the challenges that are coming up and to be part and parcel of the ongoing reform of the police force. Every policeman is a key to this reform.  They are expected to conduct themselves in ways that will tell well of the force.

How to carry members of  the public along
I will ensure that our service delivery are acceptable by the people. We are going to  reach out to the people, even the last citizen of the state would be reached and we will hear his or her complain and ensure that the person was well attended to.  Meanwhile, the IGP has rescinded his stand on road block, and it remains permanently removed. No part of this zone should maintain any form of road block.

We have asked the commissioners of police to be concerned with this and ensure that the road blocks are removed everywhere. Members of the public should cooperate with us and ensure that corruption is rooted out from the police and the larger society.  This cankerworm will be fought by all and sundry. I have warned my X-Squad to infiltrate every part of the society and ensure that we fight corruption. The N20 syndrome is a thing of the past, no policeman should be found in it, definitely if you are arrested you should know that you are quitting the force, there is no going back on it.

Corruption must be fought in totality and we have to go out and fight it. Members of the public equally should not think that we are confining our strategy on the police alone.  While we are reforming the police, members of the public who wants to be corrupt should be equally aware that we will come for them because the law has given us the provision to deal decisively with them and I call on members of the public to join us in this crusade in ensuring that Lagos and Ogun States are crime free.

Community policing; breaking the gulf between police and the people
I will adopt the full Community Policing Philosophy, which includes neighborhood watch, communicating with traditional rulers, market women etc. We are going to organize parleys with them. Don’t be surprised that the AIG himself will be part of these reach-out . We will surely deal with the people.  We will organize it in a way that the community will surely know that the police has now become increasingly closer to them.  The era when policemen constitute themselves as bosses are gone, we are no more bosses. We are servants of the people.

We are going to be with the people and they will be with us.  This we can achieve by organizing various workshops and seminars and we will invite them.  Like I said earlier,  nobody should seat down in the office; a DPO shouldn’t think because he is a DPO and he has becomes a big man, and he will shut his door from  people to come in.  The AIG’s office is open, and the commissioner of police office  must be open as well.

The DPO who is closer to the grass root has to keep his door open for the public to come in. So, the tendency  of being a boss should be removed now completely.  If you cannot create an environment where people will come closer to you, they will be nursing grudges. Even when you are conducting an investigation, people will not be pleased with you.

Challenges so far
Since I resumed, I have been faced with very little challenges.  You all know the protest that followed the renaming of University Of Lagos, Unilag.  In fact, I was to resume in Zone 2 when the students blocked the third mainland bridge, but when I got there, I asked all our men not to shoot and they obeyed me. I appealed to the students and later on they agreed and left the bridge. Also you all know the most recent, which was the Dana air crash at Iju-Ishaga.

I was saddled with the duty of controlling the crowd and to create a way for rescue workers at the site, and you know several other cases of armed robbers  which is very common in the country.  I want to tell you that I was in Delta State as a commissioner of police and when I came into Lagos, I realized that Lagos is more peaceful than several other states I have worked.

The issue of armed robbery, kidnapping and cultism is common in Delta State, but they are very few in this state. These are some of the challenges I have been faced with since I resumed, but I will relate them as social problems and we will get social solutions to them. One other thing is that the police have been working under serious logistic challenges, especially in the modern time, while most of us are still using Ak47 rifles, armed robbers and kidnappers are using more sophisticated weapons.

But that notwithstanding, with our commitment we will ensure that Lagos and Ogun states becomes very peaceful.  And also, if you remember, the present IG, was here as an AIG, that means I have inherited a very comfortable atmosphere.  So, I have a challenge of beating the IG’s record. Better still maintaining or sustaining it. But my major concern is not to allow it dwindle. And it is not going to be easy. You know  when you go to a heroes den you can’t quickly beat the hero. I  currently am struggling to  ensure that I sustain his standard.

Protecting police informants
This issue has often been raised and we have been wandering why people are scared of the police force which was formed by them. We have come to realize that the police have been conducting themselves in manners that are unappealing to the people. This might be as a result of the selfish interests of some policemen. I can not say all of us are good, there are some very bad eggs who have been promoting their selfish interests and in the cause of achieving their interests, they completely deviate from the norm of the force and then people will be afraid of dealing with them.

I want to tell you that it is professionally unethical for a policeman to disclose the identity of his informant. If you could remember, there are some policemen who would, after investigating a case, go back and give the criminal the identity of the person who gave him the information and when the criminal becomes free, he goes after such person. It is for us now to show the person that his identity will be protected, and you can only achieve that by the way you conduct yourself, by the way you conduct your investigations.

And when some people  gives out an information, they often seat back and watch how the police  work on such information, how they carry out  their  investigation and when he notices that the policeman has deviated from what he should do and start doing something else, then he would start doubting you.

But as it stands now, the police force is currently recruiting, officers  with credible background, with no criminal records, sound minds and  who would not drag the name of the force on the mud.  We hope with the ongoing reform  by the IGP, we will repair our  strained relationship with members of the public and regain their confidence.