THE Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Dahiru Abubakar, has directed the immediate dismantling of all intra state and highway roadblocks which constitute nuisance, especially in Lagos, Edo and the south-eastern states.

Also, he ordered the disbandment of all squads, teams or any other operational or investigating outfit under whatever name and collapsing such into the original structures recognised by police standards.

The IGP, who read the Riot Act on Monday while addressing ACPs of Police Commands in charge of operations and CIDs in Abuja, warned that henceforth, he would hold Command Operation Officers and ACP CIDs personally and directly responsible for operational and investigative misdemeanours occurring within their jurisdictions.

According to him, any observed non-compliance with these directives and subsequent ones which will be issued from time to time will attract severe sanctions as his administration will not be frustrated by officers’ non-committal attitude to work, nor will it tolerate indiscipline, indolence, corruption, inefficiency and all the negative tendencies that have brought much disgrace to the force.

While lamenting that the Nigeria Police had fallen to its lowest level and had become a subject of ridicule within the law enforcement community and among members of the enlarged public, the IGP noted that police duties had been commercialised and provided at the whims and caprices of the highest bidder.

“Our men are deployed to rich individuals and corporate entities such that we lack manpower to provide security for the common man, our investigation departments cannot equitably handle matters unless those involved have money to part with.”

He said it was sad that complainants suddenly became suspects at different investigation levels, following spurious petitions filed with the connivance of police officers.

Also, he said the anti-robbery squad (SARS) had become killer teams, engaging in deals for land speculators and debt collection, while toll stations, in the name of checkpoints, adorned the highways with policemen, shamefully collecting money from motorists in the full glare of the public.

The IGP regretted that justice had been perverted, people’s rights denied, innocent people committed to prison, torture and extra-judicial killings perpetrated and so many people arbitrarily detained in cells because they could not afford the illegal bail being demanded.

These illegalities, he noted, thrived under the command of police bosses because they had compromised the soul of their profession.

“Our respect is gone and the Nigerian public has lost even the slightest confidence in the ability of police to do any good thing,” he lamented.

He said they must purge the system of corruption which crippled and frustrated every honest effort at reforming the police, as exemplified in the total failure of the multiple efforts of government at reforming the force.

Abubakar said he was fully abreast of the administrative and operational challenges which they had been encountering in the conduct of their duties and had already begun to address some of them.

However, he warned that those problems could not justify or serve as excuses for the myriad of uncouth and unprofessional conduct of police officers and men across the country.

He also directed the immediate release of all persons detained in police cells without lawful justification, adding that they must enforce discipline among their subordinates.

Meanwhile, acting IGP has constituted a committee to review all cases of Boko Haram suspects arrested between 2010 till date.

Informed police sources disclosed to the Nigerian Tribune that the IGP was not happy when he went through the files of all the Boko Haram suspects arrested and released without concluded investigations.

He consequently directed the committee to study all the case files, harmonise them and find any possible means of re-arresting the suspects.

The source told the Nigerian Tribune that the IGP said if the investigations had been properly carried out, the key members and sponsors of Boko Haram would not have posed any threat now.

It was also gathered that the committee, which has since commenced work, had directed all commissioners of police in the affected states to forward all cases of Boko Haram suspects to them.

Nigerian Tribune also gathered that the IGP was alreading making plans to constitute a strong squad to confront the Boko Haram menace, after the committee might have concluded its assignment.


http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/35951-no-more-roadblocks-ig-disbands-all-squads-teams-laments-commercialisation-of-the-force

http://www.newsng.com/story-detail.php?title=Onovo-orders-removal-of-checkpoints&story=bfb0098f7e

The Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, has ordered the immediate dismantling of road blocks in the South-east. The absence of police officers from the ubiquitous checkpoints became noticeable on Tuesday when they were not seen at points where they usually extort money from motorists.

Na today?? People deceiving themselves.

and your point is?

another lamentation session . . . make we wait for tomorrow own.