8, 000 Copies of Arase’s Book on Prevention & Detection of Crimes by the Police in Nigeria are sold out at launching; as FG plans Executive Order on Community Policing Strategies.

Over 8, 000 copies of the book ‘Law on Prevention and Detection of Crimes by the Police in Nigeria’ written by the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Dr. Solomon Arase (rtd) were sold out at the launching of the book at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja on Tuesday.

This is just as the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo SAN declared that the federal government will soon come out with an Executive Order issuing directives on the implementation of sustainable community policing strategies to stem rising wave of crime and criminality in the country.

Represented by his Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Senator Babafemi Ojodu, Osinbajo said time has come for new policing methods noting that days when senior police officers including IGPs, CPs, sat in their offices in Abuja and State Capitals policing the entire nation and states without linking up with remote communities and villages were no longer workable.

Senator Ojodu wondered why there was fear and misgivings over calls for State Police noting that with the magnitude of personnel needed and resources to sustain the required number of Policemen for the country, State Policing was the way to go.

Ojodu also frowned at a situation whereby elites in the country prevent their children from joining the police saying that if these children many of whom willingly want to join the police are allowed, the police and society will be more effective and better for it.

Chairman of the occasion and former Governor of Cross Rivers State, Mr. Donald Duke disclosed that going by United Nations projections of one policeman to 100 Nigerians, with a population of 180million Nigerians, the nation needed a police force of 1. 8million.

The former governor also said there was need for further decentralization and creation of more police zones and units across the country to take policing down to the people at the grassroots communities and villages.

“To start with, we must quickly attain the number of 500, 000 federal police personnel; up from the current number of 300, 000 personnel while the entry requirement into the police should be raised from the present OND qualification to HND as policing these days require better intellect and education”.

He disclosed that during the era of military rule, the growth of the Nigerian Police was stunted which affected the force badly pointing out that the idea of building barracks for policemen apart of huge cost of maintenance, kept the police far from the citizenry.

“Policemen should be living among the people. That way the people will see them as part and parcel of the society and the community will work together with them”.

Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki in his assertion, threw his weight behind the call for the establishment of State Police as a way of containing and preventing crime since the personnel will not only be officers who know their environment, but will operate locally with people whose culture and ways of life are known to them.

Describing the publication of the book as timely and apt, Obaseki said, “There is nobody better qualified to write such a book taking into consideration, the depth, experience and intellectual work experience of 35 years put into the Nigerian Police than Dr. Solomon Arase”.

“Going by media publications and some beliefs of falling standards of policing and fighting of criminality which has resulted in the military virtually taking over police duties in the country, it is therefore a good thing that this book is coming on stream” Obaseki said.  

Five former Inspectors General of Police, IGP (rtd) Aliyu Attah, Tafa Balogun, Sunday Ehindero, Mike Okiro and Ogbonna Onovo and several retired DIGs and AIG’s graced the occasion while the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge Operations, DIG Joshak Habila represented IGP Ibrahim Idris.

Speaking on behalf of the ex-IGPs, Mr. Tafa Balogun commended Dr. Solomon Arase for the efforts and time in coming out with the book saying “We know the author very well, his capacity and disposition to excellence. That is why many of us are here”.

Balogun said, “The quality of the book, quality of the contents, language of delivery, his background as a thoroughbred police officer and quality of mind, has culminated in the book being an excellent work”.

Tafa Balogun then recommended the book to every law enforcement agent and agency as well as every Nigerian christening it ‘The Epistle of Dr. Solomon Arase to the Nigerian Police’.

Explaining his motivation for the book, Dr. Arase said “Since knowledge is power, you cannot offer or proffer proper law enforcement without knowledge of enforcement technology, intelligence as well as dissecting and anticipating modes of prevention and detection of crime.

He said he was driven by the reality that an agency involved in crime fighting but lacks professional knowledge is a danger not only to itself but to the country and citizens it is supposed to protect.  

Chief launcher of the occasion, Captain Hosa Okunbor bought over 2, 000 copies of the book saying 500 copies each going to the Nigerian Police, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Airforce while the remaining will be given to tertiary institutions in Edo State.

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