Adamu Mohammed,Police
Backs community policing to reduce crime in Nigeria
By Henry Umoru
Adamu Mohammed,Police
ABUJA—THE Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu, yesterday challenged governors and local government chairmen to wake up to their responsibilities, if the high level of insecurity in the country must be curtailed.
He also listed the declining rate of moral among the rank and file of the police, poor welfare of personnel, poor working condition and inadequate accommodation facilities as some of the factors militating against policing of the country.
Adamu, who spoke shortly after a closed-door meeting with senators in the National Assembly in Abuja, said police alone should not be made to tackle the security challenges, ranging from insurgency, kidnapping to banditry in Nigeria, and stressed the need for governors and local government chairmen to offer good governance in their domains to stem insecurity.
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“What are the things that lead to the commission of a crime? Are all issues to be dealt with by security agencies alone? No. There are other arms of government that need to deal with the problem.
State governors, local government chairmen should take up theirs responsibilities.
“What makes people to commit these crimes? If it is lack of employment, if it is lack of education or those issues that will require intervention by the government, governors and council chiefs should take responsibility, not that everything will be left to security agencies alone,’’ the IGP said in an interview with reporters.
IGP okays community policing
On community policing, the IGP said: “I appeared before the Senate and briefed them on the concept of community policing. If you can remember, last year, we sensitised the country on the need to adapt community policing and the concept is to give policing back to the community.
‘’Let the community take the initiative in identifying the problems that can lead to the commission of crime and then we work with the community to solve the crime. We believe that everybody comes from a community and knows virtually everyone there.
“Taking policing back to the community will help in reducing crime to the barest minimum. So I have explained the concept of community policing to the Senate, which involves partnership with communities. You can have traditional institutions as a community.
“You can have the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, as a community. You can have the media as a community and various communities you can have partnership with. If you are talking about partnership, we are talking about problem solving.
“We need to solve problems that evolve in the community. What we mean here is that we scan the community to find out what are the indices that can lead to the commission of crime or a crime that has been committed already.
“We analyse the problems and then we look for solutions and the responses that are available, then we deploy resources to deal with the problems and then subsequently we re-evaluate all our responses to see how we can adjust to solve the problem.”
The session spanned five hours, from 11am to 2.55pm.
A source also told Vanguard that during the meeting, the issue of coordination and sharing of information among the security agencies was recommended to be taken seriously, if the problem must be solved.
Senate vows support for police
Speaking after the meeting, President of the Senate; Senator Ahmad Lawan, vowed that the Senate would support the Police through legislative interventions.
“The IGP answered questions bordering on national security challenges, banditry, assaults on our major roads across the country, illegal circulation of fire arms and efforts in encouraging synergy between the federal and state governments from distinguished senators.
“The Senate, thereafter, resolved to support the Nigerian Police through legislative interventions. The police force must find a way to be more proactive to protect the lives and property of the citizens,’’ Lawan said.