Commissioners of Police and other strategic police managers have been challenged to strengthen their leadership capacity to deal with crimes.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Usman Baba, gave the charge at a meeting with strategic police managers, including commissioners of police and above in Abuja, yesterday.
The I-G said the meeting was to evaluate the activities of the force in 2021, and identify gaps that militate against service delivery to the citizens.
Baba also said the meeting was to chart ways to bridge the gaps and enhance professional and operational capacity of personnel in 2022.
He noted that 2021 was a challenging year to the Nigeria Police with potent threats to internal security by the activities of bandits, secessionists, kidnappers and other organised criminal elements.
He said the challenges were compounded by the #Endsars violence of 2020, which weakened the morale and operational base of the force, following the massive destruction of police operational assets.
He said: “Despite this reality within the internal security space, I am delighted to note that all of you, as strategic police commanders, remained resilient, and demonstrated commendable levels of courage, initiative, sound operational capacity and loyalty.
“This is the spirit that we set out to advance in the policing agenda, upon my assumption of duty as the I-G, and I am delighted that you have keyed into this new policing mission.’’
Baba said the force, in the outgoing year, undertook several high-profile special operations leading to the prevention of several crimes and neutralisation of numerous criminal elements. He said we have also deepened our capacity to deploy intelligence to support police investigative and operational activities, thereby, preventing the perfection of some major crimes and the arrest of high-profile criminals.
He commended the personnel for their resilience, patriotism, and exceptional operational performance during the November 6 gubernatorial election in Anambra.
Baba said the conduct of the officers during the election had been widely adjudged, both locally and internationally, as being responsible for frustrating the attempt by subversive elements to truncate that election.