The Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu has revealed that the 36 Nigerians arrested for
allegedly vandalising businesses belonging to South Africans in reaction to the xenophobic attacks will be prosecuted.
Muhammed stated this while speaking with newsmen during his visit to the headquarters of the Ekiti state police command in Ado Ekiti on Thursday.
Adamu said Nigeria is a country being governed by laws, describing those displaying such anti-xenophobic destruction as criminals and unpatriotic citizens.
He said the arrest was lawful and justifiable and was done to portray Nigerians as law abiding citizens before the global community.
The IGP said, ” Nigeria is a country that has laws and we will obey our laws. We will never behave like others do in other country.No individual is allowed to take laws into his or her hands. What happened in South Africa, the federal government is dealing with that at a diplomatic level.
” It is not a license for any individual in this country to come around and attack the assets and businesses of South Africa or any other foreign countries. Those people that engaged in that, we look at them as unpatriotic and criminals and that is why we arrested many of them and we are going to prosecute them.
” Your country is a country that believe in the rule of law and if another country does something to the contrary, that does not mean we should follow suit.”
Addressing a stakeholders’ meeting, Adamu added that the country’s policing system had been redesigned and rejigged to be community-based.
“Our strategy for policing has changed. The community is now working with us and we are going to ensure that all the communities are represented whether you are traditional rulers or you belong to any socio-cultural group.
“We are going to train people from each community who will have the power of the police and power to arrest. They will be deployed to help the police in fighting crimes. When it comes to recruitment, we will come to your communities.
” There are isolated cases of robbery, kidnapping and cultism in the south-west of recent and we believe the traditional rulers and the state governors must show commitment and we are ready to do anything to mitigate the security problems.
“We believe that if we all work together by way of robbing minds and share ideas,our society will be free of crimes,” he said.
The IGP added that the government is seriously concerned about the welfare of the officers, saying ” We have bought patrol vehicles and with the state of the earth technology that can checkmate crimes.
“We believe no officer should die in the course of fighting crimes. To this end, body armour have been procured to protect us while confronting the evildoers. If you kill one police officer, the government has lost the money spent to train such officer.”
The Ekiti State police Commissioner, Asuquo Amba, said the police have been able to reduce crimes in Ekiti due to hardwork displayed by his men .
He said his command has also maintained robust and smooth collaborations with other sister agencies to maintain the security of lives and property.
The Chairman of the Ekiti State Traditional Rulers and the Alawe of Ilawe Ekiti, Oba Adebanji Alabi,commended the IGP and promised that the body would continually support the police to make Ekiti safe.
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