Sexual abuse: Police deploy 100 female personnel to IDP camps

Borno Police Command said, yesterday, it has deployed 100 female police personnel to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the state following allegation of abuse of women by officials.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a non-governmental organisation, had alleged abuse of girls and women by camp officials in its latest report.
Some of the abused girls later became prengnat, according to the report.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Damian Chukwu, told the News Agency of Nigeria, in Maiduguri, that his command is taking steps to ensure the protection of IDPs.
Chukwu also said he has also constituted a high-powered committee to oversee running of the camps. “I have constituted a committee, led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), with Divisional Police Officers (DPO) and other senior officers, to take over the daily running of the camps.
“It is interesting to say that most members of the committee are female.
“I have also mobilised over 100 women police from different divisions, including mobile police women, to handle day-to-day interaction in the camps.
“Male officers will be limited to handling of the territorial coverage and patrol within the camps,” said Chukwu.
He also added that the objective was to further secure the camps and give confidence to thousands of women in the IDP camps.
“The deployment of women police is also to dig out true happenings in the camps regarding the allegation.
“We feel that the victims might not want to talk freely to men but, they will be encouraged to open up to women policemen if the allegation is true.”
He insisted that prior to the alarm raised by the HRW, the police did not receive any complaint on the alleged abuse.
“We did not receive any complaint on any case of rights abuse in the camps.
“So ,the whole thing appeared strange to me; in each of the camps, we have many police outposts.
“In Bakassi camp (in Cross River State) for instance, we have five police units because every local government area in the IDP camp has its DPO and other policemen, with all the complement of law enforcement,” Chukwu noted.
He, however, said police investigation will unravel the truth of the matter once and for all.