The Sun to partner police on community policing

• As IGP says 350,000 policemen inadequate

FROM FRED ITUA, ABUJA

The Sun Publishing Limited, in part­nership with the Ni­geria Police, will, in the second week of August, hold a security summit on community policing.

Plans for the summit were discussed late last week with the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Ehigiator Arase, in a meeting with the Manag­ing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Sun Publishing, Mr. Eric Osagie.

During his courtesy visit to the IGP in his Abuja office last Friday, Osagie intimated the chief cop of the need for such awareness platform and the ben­efit it would bring the nation and the Nigeria Police.

In the proposals he submit­ted to the IGP, Osagie availed Arase, himself an advocate of grassroots policing as a better means of keeping the nation safer, on the benefits of the pro­posed security summit.

The Sun CEO also assured the IGP of the preparedness of the medium to work with him and the police for a better and safer nation.

In his response, Arase thanked Osagie for the visit and proposal, which he said was laudable and commendable. He disclosed that the police were ready to partner The Sun on the proposed summit. He also noti­fied of the resolve and readiness of the police under his watch to work with The Sun and all sectors of the society in ensur­ing that the police make better impact in its obligations to the nation.

Arase stated that improved welfare for officers, better community relationship with members of the public and combating crimes are part of the key areas he intends to infuse changes in the police.

The police boss disclosed that the Nigeria Police has only 350,000 policemen, a figure he said was grossly inadequate to make good impact on the na­tion’s security with a mandate to provide adequate security for over 170 million people.

He said it would be impos­sible to achieve that without the active cooperation of members of the public.

The IGP said: “I am very grateful to The Sun Managing Director for taking out time to visit us today, We are really con­cerned about our community relationship with the members of the public. We have issues with perception management in the NPF. That is what we are trying to change. We cannot do that without partnering the com­munities.

“That informs the reason we are planning a summit to part­ner the communities. And we are happy to partner you in the proposed seminar. The issue of insurgency cannot be solved by policemen alone. We need the public to give us informa­tion, which can be processed into intelligence for us to deal with the problems. The country is very vast and there is no way 350, 000 policemen can cover the security space. We need to really get members of the public and the communities involved. We are not allergic to criticisms. Once they are constructive and can create a pathway for us to follow, we will be very happy.”

He promised to give Nige­ria the best police, and also re-emphasised the need to place high premium on the sanctity of human rights, vowing to ensure that the police conducts them­selves in tandem with interna­tional best practices.

“I can assure Nigerians that we want to give them the best police they require. The rights of Nigerians are paramount. I do not like it when people are de­tained indiscriminately without sufficient evidences. We can do things better, in line with inter­national best practices. We also observed that the capacity of our officers has to be heightened, and I am very passionate and concerned about the welfare of inspectors and the rank and file. If I am talking about corruption, I must put something in place to discourage my officers from be­ing corrupt. During their course of duty, I should be able to pro­vide my men bottle of water or snacks as disincentive against corruption while on duty.”

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