By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
The Inspector General of Police, Adamu Muhammed, yesterday harped on the importance of community policing in the country.
The IGP made this known yesterday during the South West geo political security summit held at the University of Ibadan, Oyo state.
Adamu said he was delighted to note that the strategies jointly developed between the strategic community actors and the Police which are currently being implemented have been effective in addressing the identified security threats in the geopolitical Zone.
“This is evidenced by the fact that since the last meeting, the rate of these crimes has not only dropped drastically, several bandits have voluntary renounced crime, submitted their weapons and released several victims that had hitherto been kidnapped and held in their camps across the Zone.
“A more significant outcome of the initiative is the enhanced trust between the communities and the Police and a renewed determination to embrace the police as ‘their police’ who are committed to serving them. In consequence, there has been a remarkable increase in the volume and quality of pieces of criminal information shared by the citizens across the North West geopolitical Zone with the local police and these are being optimally utilised to take the anti-crime war to the door steps of the criminals with resounding success.
“Our experience from the first security Summit stresses two fundamental facts in relation to policing and community safety. Firstly, it highlights the fact that we cannot proceed on an anti-crime war against criminal elements that are united in their determination to threaten our common values with a divided front.
“Hence, we must as a strategy, strengthen partnership among ourselves as a community on the one hand, and between the communities and the police on the other hand. The strength of this partnership and the commitment of all actors within the process will undoubtedly, influence the extent of success we can record against the criminals.”
He added that the strategic importance of community policing is the most potent strategy for internal security governance.
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