THE top hierarchy of the Nigeria Police Force has vow to resist any attempt by politicians to cause security breakdown during the 2015 general election, as it has mapped out strategies to ensure that all the forthcoming elections in the country are crisis-free.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, gave the warning at the opening ceremony of the conference with Deputy Inspectors General of Police (DIGs), Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs) and Commissioners of Police (CPs) in Abuja, on Wednesday.
“If election will take place in 2015, whether we are on board or not, we have the responsibility as an agency of the government to ensure that preparation for 2015 starts in 2014,” he stressed.
He said the police would, in the next few days, pay greater attention to states that have communal crises to ensure that normalcy was restored in such states. He specifically mentioned Kano, Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau and Nasarawa states where more efforts were needed to improve on security situations.
The conference, according to the IGP, would “pay attention to political situation in Nigeria, looking at the zones and each state of the country.
“We will review the political situations and issues in each state, then adjudge and see what the commissioner of police has been doing, whether he has been able to take care of such situation and areas where he has challenges, we look at those challenges and find out what are the impediments that stop him from doing what he is supposed to do in order to avoid political crisis.”
While appraising the performance of the police in 2013, the IGP said, “despite the security challenges, 2013 was a better year. I must congratulate all of you for making Nigeria safer than it was.
“What we did was very simple. We rededicated and re-committed ourselves to the service of this country and every officer (CP) made personal sacrifices to ensure safety in the command where he presided over.”
On the strategies employed that led to a hitch-free Christmas and New Year celebrations, Abubakar said: “What we did was to recommit ourselves to ensure that Nigeria remain safer. I can tell you that every officer here made personal sacrifices to ensure that during the Christmas and New year celebrations, all the officers were on ground. Invariably, what that means is that nobody around them were allowed to go to anywhere and I want to assure you that 2014 will be better than 2013 in terms of security.”
Source: Thisday
