By Oluseyi Dasilva, Ilorin
The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Usman Alkali Baba, has charged the officers and men of the Police to change their attitude to work by shunning bribery and stop extortion, saying that anything that comes through bad ways, affects the doer in bad ways.
Baba however promised better welfare for men and officers of Police Force as a way of boosting their morale in the discharge of their professional duties.
The IGP while speaking with journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, during a one-day visit to Kwara State Police Command on Wednesday, said that there is nothing the police is passing through that he is not aware of, but urged them to make professionalism a focal point as ambassadors of the Nigeria Police.
He further gave a hint that the service is set to employ 60,000 more police personnel in a space of six years at the rate of 10,000 per year, to tackle prevalent shortage of manpower.
The Police boss said that the engagement of more police personnel was supposed to have started last year but was hindered by some logistics and administrative predicament adding that a total number of 20,000 police personnel would be employed this year across the 774 local government areas of the country in order to take care of last year planned employment that did not take place.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval for us to recruit 10,000 police personnel every year for six years. We have started but we have not done for 2020. So, we are doing for 2020 and 2021 between now and the end of the year. Their training is for six months. Latest by the end of 2021 our strength is expected to increase by 20,000,” he said.
He also charged his men and officers to be closer to their wives, saying that family provides first security to the men after the days’ hustle and bustle.
“When I go out to work, I get exhausted; I return home and feel refreshed. A good Police officer is one who is endeared to his wife and immediate family.”
Baba, who said that the country is winning the war against banditry and insurgency, added that the police is not fighting the war alone.
“All other security agencies are in synergy in the fight against the bandits, including the military, which is leading the war and we’re winning”, he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Command, Mr. Tuesday Assayomo, lamented the shortage of man-power, saying that it has affected policing capacity in the State, in view of possible overflow of bandits being chased from Zamfara and Katsina States.
“The concern of Kwarans today is that they do not enter Kwara State through this ungoverned reserve forest in the Northern part of the State, hence my subtle request to the IGP to graciously order for the return of our Mobile Policemen currently on special duty in the states outside Kwara so as to help strengthen the security of the State.
“Kwara State is called the state of Harmony but with her fair share of security challenges like kidnapping, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cultism, boundary disputes, communal clashes, migration of people from the crisis-ridden states to Kwara state, the state has become crime-prone.
“Kwara state has three senatorial districts; the North Senatorial district has an international border with Republic of Benin in Baruten Local Government area which makes the area vulnerable to cross boundary crimes like smuggling and human trafficking. Kaiama Local Government Area of the state has a large ungoverned forest reserve that stretches to Borgu local government area of Niger state, which also makes the place a bandit rendezvous,” he said.