The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Usman Alkali Baba, Thursday, charged the top echelon of the force to stem the tide of secessionism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, and other violent crimes and restore the nation to the path of peace, unity, and national security in the shortest possible time.
He also told the officers which included commissioners of police and above to find a lasting solution to coordinated, premeditated violent attacks targeted at personnel and assets of the Police Force, military, and other security agencies in the South East region.
This is just as Alkali, has ordered the closure of IGP Monitoring Unit offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt and banned operatives of the unit from undertaking criminal investigations including taking over cases from State Commands.
The meeting which is the first to be held by the IGP since he assumed office is also aimed at addressing the increasing threat to internal security in the country by the terrorist groups, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbery syndicates, and arms traffickers among other criminal activities.
Declaring the meeting open which took place at the Peace Keeping wing behind the force headquarters, Alkali, said: “This Conference was convened to achieve a number of critical objectives. The first is to enable me to interact with you as officers of the Force across the country whose shoulders the strategic leadership of the Force rests. The second is to act as a veritable forum for the definition of my Mission Statement and Organisational Vision. The third is to assess the current internal security situation across the country, review our strategies and emplace sets of strategic actions that could aid us in our statutory mandate of restoring order and public confidence, granted the current national security realities.
Lamenting over the insecurity in the county, the IGP, said “The recent pattern and trend of crime which clearly indicates an increasing threat to internal security by terror elements, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbery syndicates and arms traffickers constitute major challenges to our nation and to the Nigeria Police. This trend is being compounded by a growing separatist agenda that has assumed an armed dimension in which personnel and assets of the Nigeria Police Force, Military, and other security agencies are being constantly targeted in clearly well-coordinated, premeditated violent attacks in the Southeast Geopolitical Zone.
He said: “As the lead agency in internal security, the task of rolling back this unacceptable security tide rests primarily with us. Hence, there is no better time for us to re-order our policing vision, re-evaluate our strategies, close the trust gap between us and the citizens and re-position the Police institution all with a view to re-energizing our crime-fighting orientation than now. This Conference shall critically engage all these issues.
“The policing framework being envisioned under my leadership is one that will address the fundamental issues that impact on our optimal professional service delivery, break away from the traditional policing approaches, lift the Force into modernity, restore citizens trust, and re-position the Force to address the fear of crime as well as tackle prevalent threats in the most civil but effective manner in fulfillment of the expectations of the Federal Government and the citizens.”
