The new Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos State, Bala Abdulla Hassan, has said Divisional Police Officers and Area Commanders who do not pick their calls should be sacked.
This was even as Hassan revealed that the police will partner with the Army and other security agencies to verify and check the influx of Boko Haram terrorists into the states under his Command. Zone 2 covers Lagos and Ogun States.
Hassan, addressing journalists on Monday in his office, said the phone numbers of senior police officers should be available to members of the public so they could reach them on time in case they wanted to report crime or give information.
He added: “A DPO who doesn’t pick his calls is not fit to be in that position.
“All my Commissioners of Police, in Lagos and Ogun States, including DPOs and Area Commanders, should make their phones open to members of the public.
“They must always pick their calls. There’s soon going to be billboards for emergency numbers for the public to reach the police.
“DPO’s should display their phones numbers at the station and charge rooms.
“Members of the community should have access to the phone numbers of the DPO in their area.”
Rolling out his plans for Lagos and Ogun States Police Commands, Hassan said his tenure would witness improvement in crime control, stressing that he was working in tandem with the agenda of the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, and zero tolerance for corruption and corrupt officers.
Speaking further on Boko Haram, Hassan said: “We have detectives from the Zonal Intelligence Bureau, who are in plainclothes, combing different areas.
“We’ll reduce militants and people of questionable characters coming into the states.
“We want members of the public to report policemen who they see arresting people in commercial buses. It’s unethical.”
According to Hassan, the ‘Safer Highway,’ which was recently launched by Arase in different states, would ensure an end to accidental discharge since the policemen attached to the scheme were expected not to have contact with members of the public in order to reduce corruption.
Hassan added: “We want to improve community policing. The IGP said response to it has started leading to reduction in crime.
“I shall also sit down with my Commissioners of Police to see ways to tackle robbery in traffic jam and other crimes.
“But there are two ways we are already using to tackle robbery in traffic.
“The visibility of policemen on the highway and making sure that there is free traffic flow.”
Speaking on pipeline vandalism and the recurring killing of policemen by suspected vandals, Hassan said he hoped that members of the community of such volatile areas would help the police.
He maintained that most of the vandals were part of the communities.
Stressing that he believed in the capabilities of the two Commissioners of Police under his Command, Hassan said he was aiming to work with other security agencies in order to check crime, including pipeline vandalism.
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