Assist police in getting better welfare package, CSOs told

An appeal has been made  to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country to continually assist the police to get a better welfare package as it had remained  the voice of the force.

The officer in-charge of Legal/Prosecution Unit at the Delta State command, Chief Superintendent of Police, Fidelis Odunna, made the appeal at the inauguration of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) observatory on the implementation of the Police Act 2020 and the Police Trust Fund Act 2019 and capacity building by the  Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), held  in Asaba for participants from the South-South zone.

“Every society gets the kind of police it wants. So, what we have in Nigeria Police force is what the society wants and now that the society wants a better equipped police force, I can assure you, the society will get it”, he assured.

The legal officer, who represented the state Commissioner of Police, Ari Muhammed Ali, said the country needed laws that were implementable  and that until strong institutions were created and well-funded, things would not be done properly.

X-raying the nitty-gritty of the new police act, CSP Odunna  said for it to be effective, fundamental issues like  political will should be exercised, positing the need for Nigerians to change their mindsets against the police and vice versa.

Earlier, the Executive Director of RULAAC, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, said the centre’s intervention sought to address the various  concerns regarding policing practices in Nigeria aimed ultimately at protecting the country’s  fragile democracy.

The centre, Mr. Nwanguma continued, collectively recognise the need to strengthen the capacity of the police  to understand their roles in the survival of Nigeria democracy by upholding the tenets of police accountability  and respect for human rights which, among others, define democratic policing.

He charged members of the CSOs to, as a matter of urgency, conduct a mid-term review of the implementation of the controversial Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF), as a way to achieving its statutory  mandate.

He lamented that since the enactment of the trust fund, there had been no guidelines for the monitoring of the monies that had been released to meet the trustees.

Executive Director of The Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), Ms. Faith Nwadishi, expressed the view  that  monitoring of the  trust fund by CSOs was critical in assisting the BOT, implementation committee,  other committees, policymakers and contributors in obtaining facts about its disbursement.

Nwadishi said without political will by those at the helm of affairs, efficient and effectiveness of the police ,as  stipulated by the Police Act 2020,  might not be realised easily.

The activist, however, lamented the porous manner the N11 billion, N74.7 billion and N11.3 billion tranches of the funds that were released for police equipment contract was handled by NPTF management.

On police barracks,  the CTA executive director said: “They are the worst and most dilapidated barracks you can see in the world, hence when a policeman engages you in a stop and search o  n routine duty, they transfer the aggression on you.”

ALSO READ FROM  NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

• Bandits Storm Kaduna Airport, Stop Aircraft From Taking Off
• Lagos Socialite Who Distributed Petrol As Souvenir Sentenced To Two Years Imprisonment, Gets Fine Option

“Absolutely, When we came with the Buhari government in 2015 I became the minister. We were committed to a roadmap to establish a National Carrier, to concession the airports, to set up a leasing company, to establish cargo facilities and we have been doing that.”

On why the Buhari government wanted a national carrier, the minister responded: “Nigeria is situated at the centre of Africa, equidistant from all locations in Africa. 30.4 million square kilometres miles, 1.5 billion people, very green land. If Central and Eastern Africa is the belt of the continent, then Nigeria is the buckle. 200 million people and rising middle class, propensity to fly is high. Nigeria is a candidate for National Carrier.”

Sirika who insisted that the coming national carrier will be private sector driven added; “Private. Yes. 5 per cent government and no government stepping right in that company, no government control, no membership of government on board. Totally private and committed.

“Whatever we say we will do as a government since 2015, it has happened. that is why Tim Clark of Emirates, Qatar Airways and all of them are looking to go into Nigeria in multiple frequencies and multiple landing points because Nigeria is the right place for the airline business.

How Workplace Sexual Harassment Forces Many Out Of Their Dream Jobs

FG expresses commitment towards private driven aviation sector