Insecurity: FG inaugurates Community Policing c’ttee

The Federal Government Tuesday in Abuja inaugurated a 14-man committee to strengthen internal security framework and community policing in Nigeria.

This comes a week after the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu said President Muhammadu Buhari has directed him to immediately commence the implementation of community policing strategy across the country.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Gida Mustapha, who inaugurated the committee in his office, recalled that President Buhari had tasked the Senior Executive Course 40, 2018 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru to undertake a study of the rising insecurity in Nigeria.

He said the committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Special Services Offices (SSO), Dr. Amina Shamaki, is expected to complete the assignment and submit its report within two months.

He said the theme of the NIPSS study was to strengthening policing in Nigeria: Policing options and strategies, saying that the scope of the study focused on ways of invigorating the internal security system and it covered the period from 1999 to 2018.

While saying that the report noted some factors militating against a comprehensive internal security framework and community policing in Nigeria, the SGF listed the factors to include; poor policy linkages, multiplicity and poor implementation of policies, centralized control of the police force, weak monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

He listed others as the poor application of technology and innovation, absence of an integrated database to aid internal security management, poor budgetary allocation to the security sector as well as lack of confidence and trust in the country’s security agencies by the Nigerian public.

He said the committee’s terms of reference are: To study and analyze the findings; Recommendations and implementation strategies of the Presidential Parley Report by NIPPS and come up with a policy statement for the consideration of Mr. President.

According to him, in the last one decade or thereabout, there have been strong agitations for government to introduce State police in the country and that these similarly dominated discussions at the National Conference convened in 2014 by the last administration.

“The agitations have not abated since the coming on board of this administration and not even the resources deployed into tackling the various hydra-headed security challenges in the country coupled with the high level of successes recorded by this Government so far has succeeded in dampening the agitations.

Other members of the committee are: Mrs. Beatrice Jeddy-Agb, Mrs. Odunbanjo Adebisi, Sanusi Galadim, Brig-Gen J. O. Ochai, and Commodore J. N. Mamman, Air Cdre A. H. Bakari, AIG David O. Folawiyo, Jimat Bakare, CP Olayinka Balogun, Dr. E.O. Adeoye, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, Prof. Sani Abubakar Lugga, Dr. Nasirudeen Usman, and Tukur Yahaya, who will act as Secretary of the committee. Chairman of the committee, Mrs. Shamaki, noted that the challenges of criminality have taken a serious toll on the socio-economic well-being of the nation.