Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar has said that herdsmen who have been killing Nigerians and causing havoc in the country are purely criminals and nothing less.
The Sultan made the declaration just as the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris stated that the Nigerian Police needed to employ 155, 000 new police officers for the crime fighting organization to meet with the United Nation’s ratio of one Policeman to every 400 Nigerians.
Speaking at the 2017 National Security Summit on Farmers/Pastoralist clashes, kidnapping and other forms of violent crimes and bank security in Nigeria in Abuja, the Sultan said, “We don’t support anybody picking up arms to kill another person. That person is a criminal whether you are a Fulani herdsmen or Yoruba or Ibo or from Middle belt”.
“We must be honest with ourselves. Our problem is not with organizing symposia, summits, and fora on challenges of security. Our problem s is non implementation of the several decision and recommendation from such summits due to dishonesty and selfishness.
While noting that national security must be placed above individual liberty, Sultan Abubakar said, “You cannot claim freedom of expression and insult everybody; you cannot claim freedom of religion and cause problems”.
He drew the attention of the gathering to other security challenges apart from the herdsmen/farmers menace saying “We have media security challenge involving use of social media to terrorize the citizenry, Political security challenge involving intolerance of politicians, to the extent that those of same political party don’t see eye to eye.
“What is the role of the Nigerian Police force? Are they being apolitical? Do we take instructions from some political leaders and refuse instruction from others.
“My advice to security agencies, Police officers, military officers and other Para-military organizations is that we must play by the book. Criticisms should not be seen as disloyalty.
“Political leaders should help this country. Let all politicians after elections, keep aside sentiments and forge ahead. Political corruption, hunger, unemployment by bad government is also security threat”.
Explaining the impact of the shortfall of manpower in the fight against criminality, IGP Idris said, “The absence of recruitment of able bodied Nigerians between 2011 to 2016 has left a huge gap in manpower need of the force due to attrition as a result of retirements, death and resignations”.
“If this requirement is to be taken into consideration, the Police force needs to recruit at least, 31, 000 officers yearly for a period of at least five years.
On new measures being put in place to combat crime, the IGP said seven (7) additional Mobile Police Squadrons have been established in Osun, Enugu, Taraba, Niger, Plateau, Kaduna and Ogun States.
“To further strengthen the capacity and quick response status of the Police Mobile Force Squadrons nationwide, the deployment of MOPOL personnel for close protection duties has been banned” he said.
Idris added that 14 Special Protection Bases have been established in Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Plateau, Nasarawa, Ogun, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Ondo and Zamfara states.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government said at the summit that it is making efforts to address the challenges confronting the operations of the Nigeria Police Force.
Osinbajo who was represented by the Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau said: “I want to assure the NPF of my administration’s support in carrying out institutional reforms and restructuring geared towards reviving the police in line with global best practices.
“We are keenly aware of the enormity of the task at hand, ranging from manpower shortage as a result of recruitment and training challenges and inadequate operational tools.
“It is paramount to note that efforts are already advanced to tackle these challenges with the recruitment of 10,000 policemen to address manpower challenges as well as improved budgetary allocation.”
He called on the organized private sector to intensify efforts in complimenting government efforts to invest in the security sector. He expressed confidence that the ideas generated at the summit would assist in surmounting the security challenges facing the country.
The acting president noted that any serious government would pay attention to issues of security.
He said that security, anti-corruption and the commitment to provide good governance, formed the cardinal programmes of the incumbent administration.
He said that security challenges facing the country had reduced as a result of the commitment of the administration to address them.
“This administration has also entered into bilateral and multilateral collaboration with other nations and international organizations to improve on the nation’s security challenges, “he said.
He said that the police had re-established civil authority in liberated areas in the North-East.
Speaking in his capacity as Minister of Interior, Dambazau said the ministry would build capacity of security agencies to tackle security challenges.
He said that farmers/herdsmen clashes involved regional dimension as the sub-region recognized free movement of persons and goods.
Dambazau urged state governors to domesticate the Criminal Justice Act to fast-track cases in the courts and as well decongest the prisons.
End
End
