Nairaland Forum

Police to withdraw assault rifles, introduce rubber bullets

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
CALABAR – The Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar has said that the regular assault riffles being used by the force will soon be replaced with rubber bullets to fight crime.

Abubakar, who stated this during stakeholders meeting with representatives of various strata of the society including religious groups at the Police Zone 6 Command headquarters in Calabar, Cross River State, Thursday, also said the police and other security agencies will continue to work hard to arrest the activities of terrorist groups and other criminal elements in the country.

The IGP in the meeting attended by representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Muslim communities, the business community and youth groups from Cross River, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Ebonyi states, said in order to make the police people friendly, it was imperative to introduce reforms that are in line with developments of the 21st century.

Abubakar said the proposed measure of using withdrawing assault rifles from roads and use of rubber bullets to fight crime was in line with world-best-practices, adding that the ban on road blocks across the country would continue all through his tenure.

“Very soon, the use of assault rifles will be off the roads. We would now be using rubber bullets if we are to fight crime and this is meant to disable criminals. The Police and the environment where they work should be people-friendly and Nigerians should feel comfortable when they approach a policeman or walk into the station.

“Road blocks are gone for good and what we will have now are patrol teams. The mounting of road blocks did a lot of damage to the image of the country and we must correct that. Road blocks had always been when armed robbers and kidnappers were operating freely and will be bribing them. This is the only country in the world where police mount check points using heavy drums and woods among others to block the road,” he said.

Abubakar also said that the Police had recently unveiled an Information and Communication Technology centre in Abuja manned by 15 assistant inspector-generals that will be monitoring activities through cameras in major cities including Abuja, Lagos and Kaduna.

While stressing, however, that crime fighting could not be completely erased from the society, Abubakar said the Nigeria Police will continue to do all within its limit to reduce crime to the barest minimum.

He urged members of the public to always divulge sensitise information to the Police in order to nip the activities of criminals at the bud.

The acting IGP also said that reforming the Force had already commenced with the retraining of 20, 000 officers and men, pointing out that those identified as dead-wood would be shown the way out.

“The intention of the present administration in the Police is to build a Force that will protect Nigeria, provide safety her citizens and guaranty the unity of the country. I want to have the police that will not harass the citizens, a force that Nigeria will be proud of in the 21st century,” he said.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/04/police-to-withdraw-assault-rifles-introduce-rubber-bullets/

At long last, the police service has some direction. This news is very heartening indeed.

Let me add my voice in congratulating the IG on this initiative!
Now, before cave men attack me, let me be clear on my stand.

I am a STRONG believer that Nigeria should wind down militancy by all sectors of society. I am ever against over militization of law enforcement. I know that some individuals can't see how the law can be enforced without brute and crude force. Fact remains that it is possible.
Nigerian police men used to be very good at neutralizing criminals (even armed ones!) and arresting them. These days, all they do is shoot to kill (lazy or incompetent police man' methods).

As far as I'm concerned, shoot to kill is a failure of law enforcement tactics. Let the courts decide who lives and who dies.
We should not be copying over militarization of law enforcement from countries whose societies are inherently violent.
Ours is not like that. Every violent crime in Nigeria is almost always traceable to either greed, need, hunger or religion. These can be arrested even before they happen (by a good intelligence driven police force).
In some countries, people commit violent crime just for the heck of it. That is not the case in Nigeria. Therefore we have no reason to copy those societies.

Any police man/woman who cannot arrest a criminal without the use of deadly force should not be in the force in the first place.

Only anti-terror squads should be armed with necessary weapons, and those squads should ALWAYS handle armed robberies and Boko Haram type of violent crimes.
Anti-terror squads (or SWAT teams) are not seen everyday and everywhere. They are special squads that are deployed to areas where such crimes are reported to be happening. They should be well trained and kept out of sight.

The rest of society (being unarmed by law) should not be made to live a life of seige whereby we are always facing guns on daily basis from the same folks who should be calming us down and making us to feel civil.

I think the IG has think about Nigeria. If only others will do the same i.e thinking about Nigeria first before their bank account.