January 19, (THEWILL) – The Inspector General of Police, Alh. Usman Alkali Baba, has said that the Nigeria Police Force is deploying technology in all areas of its operations to ensure a holistic check on new waves of banditry and kidnapping in the country.
The IG noted that the Marine unit of the police force has been reactivated, crime section digitalised, drones have been acquired while the Technical Intelligent Unit is fully functional to cope with new trends in crime and criminality.
Baba who was in Akwa Ibom State for the commissioning of the Special Protection Unit base in Onna local government area of the state disclosed this while addressing officers and men of the State command, Ikot Akpan Abia, Uyo on Wednesday.
According to him, the Nigerian Police must work with time and modernity to contain the ever dynamic crime waves adding that training and retraining has been the cardinal point of the present administration.
“Crime and criminality is a dynamic thing; it is not something that is static. It moves with time, it moves with modernisation, it moves with technology. Nobody has ever told us that human beings can be stolen, now we see human beings being stolen and taken away and they’re asking you to bring money. That is a new crime which is called kidnapping. We know of armed robbery and now we started hearing of armed banditry.
“So we must work with modernity and therefore one of our cardinal principles in the job now is to train and retrain ourselves. So training is the cardinal point of our administration. We just started training our 10,000 recruits effective last Monday and we have been able to change the curriculum to reflect modernism.
“Since we came we have gotten a lot,we have just been given 200 brand-new Pick Up vehicles that are very strong by the Police Trust Fund. We have made our Airwings very effective, we are proud of putting six helicopters in the air at one time.
“Our Marine segment has been reactivated,our Technical Intelligent Unit is working. We have acquired drones,we have digitised our crime section. We have involved a lot of technology in our works”, the IGP said.
He urged police officers in the country to constantly educate themselves by reading and listening to news in order to acquaint themselves with the latest happenings in the society.
The IG lamented however that before the launching of Operation Restore Peace to the South East, the secessionists had demoralised the workforce with unprovoked attacks and killings, adding that the force is working tirelessly to equip itself with tools to aid operations.
In his remarks, the state commissioner of Police, Andrew Amiengheme lauded the IG for his result-oriented policies which are in line with global best practises.
He said though there had been unprovoked attacks since he assumed office as the 30th commissioner of Police, the measures he initiated by rejigging the security apparatuses of the state had started yielding fruits.
He commended the collaboration between the Nigerian Police and the support of the state government in fighting crime and prevention in the state.
“Since we assumed office we have been rejigging the security apparatuses of the state and that is yielding results in the state. Some of our men are still in the affected areas” the commissioner maintained.
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