From Molly Kilete. Abuja
The Federal Government has concluded plans to unveil a new policy on community policing, soon.
The new policy, said government, is part of efforts to tackle rising wave of crimes, kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes across the country.
Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, made this known at the launch of a book, ‘Law on prevention and detection of crimes by the police in Nigeria,’ written by former Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, in Abuja, yesterday.
Osinbajo noted that it was impractical for the IGP to be in Abuja and control crimes in the remotest part of the country
“There is no way we can continue running the police as constituted, very soon, we would come out with a policy on community policing”.
Osibanjo said that the policy, when enacted, would involve retired IGPs whose experience and expertise would be exploited to address the security challenges in the country, adding that the current security system was not efficient enough to address the security challenges facing the nation.
Also speaking, former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke called for state police and recruitment of more policemen, arguing that the decentralization of the police is the greatest deterrent to crime.
He said “We must quickly attain at least 500,000 Federal Police from the current 350,000 or thereabout and about the same number at the State level.
The decentralization of policing and presence is the greatest deterrent to crime and allows for better monitoring and intelligence gathering,”.
The former governor who said that that the police ought to live among the people they are protecting instead of living in the barracks, noted that the lkoyi and Ikeja police barracks in Lagos could fetch as high as N20 billion which he said can be used to build several elite police academies.
In his address at the occasion, Arase, who said the 21st century policing must be knowledge-driven, said that an average police officer should understand the law in order to be able to enforce it from an informed and professional perspective.
He said, “In advancement of my passion for an effective Police Force and credible criminal justice service delivery process, I have resolved to commit the proceeds of this book launch towards extending scholarship opportunities to children of members of the rank and file of the Nigeria Police Force and officers of the Force that have demonstrated commendable urge for intellectualism in line with the underlying motivation of the publication.”