Nigeria’s Acting Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, on Friday vowed that the force would deal ruthlessly with officers and men involved in corruption and human right abuse.
The Police Chief gave the stern warning at the Enugu State Police Command headquarters, shortly after he attended the graduation ceremony of Batch one, Tactical Intelligence and Command Management Course at the Police Intelligence School, Enugu.
He told officers and men of the force to live above board in the discharge of their duties, maintaining that “there are certain things I am allergic to and one of them is corruption. We have zero tolerance for corruption”.
He continued that, “I don’t like keeping people in detention unnecessarily. Before you arrest somebody, you should have gathered sufficient evidence, so it should not take you more that 48 hours to decide on what next to do.
“The idea of arresting people before you go and start gathering evidence will no longer be tolerated”.
Arase further reminded the men of the force that the ban on road-block was still in force, noting that in the place of road-block, which he said damages the image of the force, highway patrol team should be made efficient to instill confidence on road users.
He stated that already, a task force had already been set up to ensure compliance, and vowed to arrest Commissioners of Police and Area Commanders who fail to enforce the ban.
On the issue of human right abuse, the police chief charged them to always remember that they were once civilians before they joined the force.
He stressed that, “when you retire from the force, you will still go back and meet them; in addition, how would you feel if inhuman treatment is meted out on your relations? You must respect the civilian you come in contact with.”
Earlier at the Police Intelligence School, the IGP recalled that the institution was established in 2012 upon the realization “that in over one hundred years of its existence, the Nigeria Police had no institution dedicated to the training of intelligence operatives.
“This gap, by my professional judgement, was a fundamental factor in the inability of the Force to cope with the dynamics of crime in Nigeria and within the West African sub-region”.
He said even though some successes were recorded at the take-off of the institution, “sadly, however, the success slowed down following the suspension of training activities for the past one year due largely to budgetary challenges”.
While congratulating the graduates, he reminded them that, “knowledge is a waste if not appropriately deployed”.
The climax of the event was the promotion of a female police officer from the rank of corporal to sergeant for her impressive performance as a parade commander.
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