The acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, has vowed to deploy new strategies to help restore order and public confidence in the police.
After assessing the current security situation in the country, the police helmsman directed the immediate reform of the IGP Monitoring Unit (IMU), which included the disbandment of the satellite offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
Baba spoke yesterday at the inaugural conference with strategic commanders of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) at the Peace Keeping Hall, Force Headquarters, Abuja.
According to him, the policing framework being envisioned under his leadership will address the fundamental issues that impact optimal professional service delivery, a break away from the traditional policing approaches.
He explained that it would also lift the force into modernity, restore citizens’ trust, and re-position the force to address the fear of crime as well as tackle prevalent threats in the most civil but effective manner, in fulfillment of expectations of citizens.
“The recent pattern and trend of crime, which clearly indicates an increasing threat to internal security by terror elements, kidnappers, armed robbery syndicates, and arms traffickers constitute major challenges to our nation and the police.
“This trend is being compounded by a growing separatist agenda, which has assumed an alarming dimension in which personnel and assets of NPF, military, and other security agencies are being constantly targeted in clearly well-coordinated, pre-meditated violent attacks in the southeast geopolitical zone,” he stated.
As the lead agency in internal security, the IGP added, the task of rolling back this unacceptable security tide rests primarily with the citizens.
“Hence, there is no better time for us to re-order our policing vision, re-evaluate our strategies, close the trust gap between us and the citizens and re-position the police institution, all with a view to re-energise our crime-fighting orientation,” he said, noting that the conference was meant to critically engage all the issues.
Baba indicated that his Policing Mission shall be ‘To restore police primacy and bequeath the nation a modernised, citizen-led, rule of law-guided, and professional police force that Nigerians can truly trust and depend on to achieve the Policing Mandate enshrined in Sections 4 and 5 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020.’
“Similarly, our Policing Vision is to restore police primacy in the internal security architecture of the country by engaging cutting-edge policing technology and integrating intelligence-led policing practices,” he added.