The Inspector General of Police , Mohammed Adamu, declared Thursday that community policing is the way out of the persistent problem of insecurity in Nigeria.
The Police boss who stated this at the National Assembly Abuja while fielding questions from journalists after about four hours of closed door session with the Senate , said taking the Police back to the Community , will help in nipping in the bud , all insecurity related crises in the land.
According to him, while appearing before the Senate at executive level , concept and modalities for establishment of community policing , were explained in details to the federal lawmakers which they also reasoned with.
He 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 in the country and the concept is to give policing back to the community.
“Let the community take the initiative in identifying the problems that are there 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 the community is a community you know who and who is 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 and there are various communities. You can have traditional institutions as a community. You can have the National Union of Road Transport Workers as a community. You can have the media as a community and various communities that 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.
“Securities issues are fluid or dynamic. At a stage where you have a rise in crimes we re-strategize and deal with them and everywhere will be stabilized. And for a period of time you will see stability in crime situation.
“But at a stage you will see the criminals re-strategizing and coming out to commit crime. What we are saying especially with the concept of community policing is that fighting crime should not be left to law enforcement agencies alone. It should not be left to security personnel alone. Everybody should be involved.
“All tiers of government need to collaborate on this concept of community policing and in doing this, state governors, local government chairmen, should take up their responsibilities in terms of making their communities unfriendly to criminals.
“People that are committing these crimes have reasons for doing so. If it is lack of employment, if it is lack of education or those issues that will require intervention by the government, the state Governor should take responsibility. Local government chairmen should take responsibility. Not that everything will be left to security agencies alone.”
In his remarks after the closed door session the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan said, “The IG answered questions bordering on national security challenges, banditry, assaults on our major roads across the country, illegal circulation of fire arms and efforts on encouraging synergy between the federal and states governments from distinguished senators.
“The senate thereafter resolved to support the Nigerian Police through legislative interventions.”
