On the background of the alleged recent killing of three policemen by soldiers, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police in charge of Operations, Abdulmajid Alli, has advised police officers not to allow the development to dampen their morale in the discharge of their duties.
Speaking with journalists during his visit to the Kwara State Police Command in Ilorin on Friday, the police boss said that there had been a cordial relationship between the police and the Nigerian Army over the years.
The DIG, who described the killing as an unfortunate development, said that authorities concerned are taking action on the matter and expressed hope that the matter would be properly addressed.
“You (the police officers) should not let this development dampen your morale. A right step has been taken and I’m sure, the matter would be properly addressed,” he said.
The police boss explained that while the police leadership has put in place a high-powered delegation to investigate the incident, President Muhammadu Buhari who is the Commander-in-chief of the armed forces has also directed that the matter be investigated.
“On the synergy between the police and the military, we have been having a very close relationship with them. The incident that happened is rather unfortunate, there is a high powered delegation to investigate what actually happened, where the President the Commander-in-chief of the armed forces has also set up a committee to investigate the panel of enquiries to find out what happened.
“This will not be swept under the carpet it will as well not affect our synergy with the other security agencies. This I promise you, this we have been doing don’t let it affect your morale. The right step has been taken, while we await the outcome of it,” he said.
Talking on the visit to most of the south-west states, the DIG said that it was to “see what we can do in terms of arrangement for security strategy to take care of issues particularly kidnapping that has risen its ugly head there. We were able to see them meet some of His Excellencies and discuss these issues in details.
“I also use the opportunity to visit Ila and see our men undergoing training there and so I decided to pass there. I want to commend you on behalf of the Inspector General of Police that you are not doing badly, Nigeria Police under the leadership of the present Inspector General of Police is not doing badly, the same thing under the present dispensation of government are living above aboard I want to assure you that we have been given the wherewithal to fight crime and criminality.
“Those in training and after the training they will come out in full force they will be our attacking force to deal with crime and criminality. Anywhere they are we are going to smoke all the criminals out of their homes and deal with them decisively and this is our promise to people of the south-west that we are up to the task.
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“The present security situation has never overwhelmed us and we would continue to do our best in ensuring that we provide security in the country, I see a lot of comments on newspapers, but I want to assure Nigerians not to panic that the present security challenge on the ground will be dealt with. I want to commend you for keeping Kwara safe.
“I just visited his Excellency and we discussed at length. He promised that he would assist the police, security is not only in hand of police, but security also is the responsibility of every one of us and so we advise Nigerians to work together with us, to support us to fight this menace,
“On the concept of community policing, a lot of people will be recruited into the Nigeria Police to assist us in policing the environment. Community policing will be very thorough, we don’t want criminals to take the advantage and come into us pretending to be the good ones, each ward, each local government will provide candidates for community policing, every one of them will be involved in policing.
“The DPO will be the ones to decide, we want issues to be resolved at the community level, we want the community to know the bad ones, we want people to know their neighbours, if you see new face, tell the police, report to the community, this is how we grow up.
“I remember when we are growing up, if you are a new person in the village, you report to the village head, the district head, we are bringing back the old concept but in the different form which the IG has put in place, we want to thank the state government for supporting us with this, we would continue to fly high, we want to tell the people of Kwarans that police will continue to do their best in ensuring that they protect them,” he said.