Nigeria has been facing lots of challenges in the area of security, especially in the North, a situation that has continued to raise concerns on the ability of the security agencies to efficiently carry out their constitutional responsibilities of protecting lives and property. However, in this interview with CHIZOBA OGBECHE, Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, insists that the Nigeria Police and other security agencies have made lots of improvement in crime fighting.
Journey so far
I will say: so far, so good. If you take a retrospective view of what security was as at the time President Muhammadu Buhari came into office compared to what it is today you will appreciate that a lot of improvement have been made.
We, essentially the law enforcement team, the intelligence community, and the military, working together, have been able to reduce to the barest minimum the capacity of Boko Haram to inflict pains and carry out major terror attacks in the length and breadth of the country as obtained in the past. And that in itself is a major achievement of PMB
Synergy among security agencies
Another thing that has also improved substantially is the capacity of the intelligence community to gather intelligence, intercept information and deploy them to active policing and other forms of crime prevention.
We have also seen massive improvement in the working relationship and partnership among the various security agencies, including the Nigeria military.
This new found synergy and collaboration between the Police and other security agencies has helped in no small measure in improving the capacity of the military and the law enforcement community to deliver on their responsibilities.
In all, I will say that in spite of all these achievements we still have a couple of security challenges but in all I will say though we are not yet at the promised land, we are certainly out of the desert and on our way to the promised land.
Changing trends in crime
I can say that crime is like every other human endeavour. The nature of crime, the frequency of crime and modus operandi of criminals are constantly changing, this is essentially because of the very dynamic nature of life and society itself.
But our responsibility as police is to continue to respond to new and emerging trends and I would say we have done excellently well in this regard.
We have been able to breakdown kidnapping; areas like Abuja Kaduna Express Road that was a hot bird for kidnapping have been brought under control. We have been able to arrest hundreds of well know self confessed kidnappers and other armed bandits,
We have been able to mop up and recover hundreds of weapons, live ammunition and other dangerous weapons and tools used by kidnappers and other criminals to perpetuate their illicit business.
Currently, we are collaborating with our sister security agencies on the ECOWAS sub-region to strengthen our capacity to police our international borders and also strengthen our capacity to intercept and stop the inflow of prohibited weapons into our country.
We are leveraging on our membership of INTERPOL, the deep understanding of INTERPOL by the IGP, who incidentally is a former vice president of INTERPOL to initiate international operations and missions to help us stop the inflow of light weapons into our country.
We have been able to come up with specialised operations like Operation Puff Adder, which has been very effective in curtailing the activities of kidnappers and bandits, particularly in the northern part of the country.
All these have helped us in check mating the activities of these criminals.
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), which is the lead agency in the prevention and fight against crime in the country, has continued to initiate several measures to nib the increasing crime trend in the bud.
IGP Adamu’s achievements
IGP Mohammed Adamu since assumption of duty as the 20th indigenous Inspector General of Police has recorded some profile-rising achievements within the first 100 days in office.
The police under IGP Adamu provided adequate security which led to the successful conduct of the 2019 general elections.
He also superintended the re-organisation of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other departments/formations of the Force for better performance and improved service delivery.
Similarly, in a bid to check rising crime rate on Nigeria Highways and activities of bandits in some northern states, especially the Abuja-Kaduna way, Operation Puff Adder was lunched as a strategic crime fighting tool to dominate and reclaim the public space from notorious criminal elements.
Following the launch of the operation several notorious kidnappers and armed robbery gangs and bandits terrorising individuals on major highways across the country have been arrested and are being prosecuted.
At least 261 kidnapping suspects have since been arrested, with 131 of them arrested within the first three months of the introduction of Operation Puff Adder.
Similarly, 535 armed robbery suspects arrested, with 201 of them arrested after the commencement of the operations;
326 murder suspects were arrested; and 361 firearms and large catchment of ammunition also recovered.
IGP Adamu has also embarked on a tour of states in the North-east and North-central to carry out assessment of security deployments in the troubled parts, even as collaboration with the Ministry of Interior and synergy with other security and safety agencies had witnessed remarkable improvement to ensure successful fight crimes and criminality across the country.
The Nigeria Police also organised strategic meetings and community engagement with stakeholders as a strategy for community involvement in finding solutions to spate of insecurity in the country, just as the leadership of the Force galvanised support and effective collaboration of critical stakeholders which ensured the passage of the Police Trust Fund Bill and the Police Reform Bill.
A new Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) based in Kaduna state and aimed at providing additional manpower and firepower in the fight against criminal elements especially along the Abuja-Kaduna Express way, was also established; just as a citizen-centered and community driven policing model otherwise known as community policing was adopted as a policy thrust to return policing to the people.
The special constables system (as provided for in Sec. 50 (1) of the Police Act Cap P19 LFN 2004) to serve as voluntary community police officers under the coordination of the Nigeria Police Force in line with the spirit of community policing was also re-introduced.
The leadership of the Police Mobile Force (PMF) Unit was upgraded to Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) for effective and efficient operational and administrative control of the unit.
In the same vein, the Police Medical Service was re-organised to serve as a socio-medical component and strategic vehicle to propel the attainment of community policing and also to aid in enhancing the emotional, psychological, physical and medical wellbeing of all Police personnel.
Also, office personnel were downsized to augment the frontline operational strengths of state commands/formations for efficiency and effectiveness as a short term strategy to manage the inadequate manpower, even as 12-hour, 2-shift systems of duty, was reversed to the traditional 8-hour, 3-shift system of duty, to address age-long occupational stressor, depression, abuse and other unprofessional conducts which long hour of duty engenders among Police personnel.
The Force disciplinary mechanism was also standardised to deal promptly with professional misconducts by policemen and bring erring police officers to justice.
Another key achievement is partnership and collaboration with the international community, particularly the INTERPOL, in acquiring modern crime fighting technology to curtail crime in the country.
The Force also established partnership and collaboration with telecommunications operators in the country for ease of tracking criminals’ elements and dealing with organised crimes.
