Security Challenges: Buhari to employ 10, 000 Police officers. ***Says CCTV Monitoring systems will be established in major towns & cities.

Security Challenges: Buhari to employ 10, 000 Police officers.
***Says CCTV Monitoring systems will be established in major towns & cities.

In his determination to checkmate crime, and criminal tendencies among youths arising from the problems of massive unemployment in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the federal government is emplacing appropriate framework that will facilitate the employment of an extra 10, 000 Police officers.
Additionally, he said government is to establish properly trained and equipped federal anti- terrorism, multi-agency task force that will effectively address the challenge of Boko Haram and any form of insurgency in a sustainable manner.
Speaking at the one day National Security Summit organized by the Nigerian Police force and Sun Newspapers in Abuja with the theme ‘Community partnership approach to internal security and crime management’ yesterday, Buhari said, “In order to further strengthen the security of the public space, consideration is being given to the expansion of the CCTV Monitoring System across major cities and towns in the country while police accountability mechanism will be strengthened”.
According to the President, “The need for community input to policing and crime management in Nigeria has even become more imperative considering our current national security challenges in which kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, transnational crimes, terrorism and other organized crimes have evolved to threaten our national values and developmental strides”.

“While it is understandable that unemployment, illiteracy, radicalization, negative peer group influence, substance abuse and erosion of family and moral values are social factors that underline criminal tendency, the reality remains that the task of addressing these challenges is that of parents, community and the state”.

Disclosing that efforts are being made to enhance the operational capacity of officers of the Nigeria Police force through tailor made training programme that will give them the right civil orientation in their roles as guardians of the constitution, the President said his administration will encourage the development of state-level community policing under a model that will integrate members of the community to policing functions at the grassroots level.

Commending the leadership of the police force for appreciating the yearning of members of the public by ordering the dismantling of police road blocks which have consistently constituted a dark side of policing and object of discord between the police and the citizenry, Buhari said the initiative of the IGP to introduce the ‘Safer Highway Motorized Patrol Scheme’ and deploy 555 patrol vehicles along all major highways to fill the void created has reassured the citizens of their safety and security”.

Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase in his address noted that the peculiar challenges of dwindling budgetary resources, inadequate manpower profile, and weak logistics base as well as the extant challenge of terrorism facing the Nigeria Police force, can best be addressed through citizens-driven policing model.

He made the disclosure just as he called for adequate funding of the Nigeria Police to ensure operational efficiency.

Arase said it was only through adequate funding that the huge logistic demand of the police can be met.
Emphasizing that modern policing was a cost-intensive venture of which the benefits far outweigh the value of budgetary investment, the IGP said, “Through effective funding, the welfare needs of police personnel will be met and the challenge of corruption that has eroded professionalism and public respect for police will be addressed”.

He called for the resuscitation and passage of the Bill on Police Trust Fund pending before the National Assembly (It seeks to tax corporate entities to complement FG’s funding of the Police) to give effect to public-police partnership.

Arase maintained that if passed, the funding challenges of the police would have been addressed on a sustainable basis.

Emphasizing that the citizens-driven policing model was the way forward, the IGP said, “This model will address the manpower deficiency challenge in the Nigeria Police as every citizen plays the role of a police officer.”

END.