The Nigerian Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, has stated that the series of reforms and the State of Emergency declared on the force by the Inspector-General has yielded positive results.
He made this declaration while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily to discuss the progress made on the Police reforms embarked on by the Police authorities.
He said: “We have made significant and massive progress in this regard. Not only has the Police College Ikeja been turned around to a modern Police Academy, as was witnessed when the Vice President came to officially throw it open, we have also seen massive infrastructural improvement in other Police training institutions.”
Citing several examples of Police training facilities being built or renovated across the country, Mba said that the Police have been working with the Federal Government and certain corporate organizations in fulfilment of their Corporate Social Responsibilities.
Emphasis was laid on Police Intelligence Training as Mba stated that this was the area in which the current reforms have done excellently well. “As I speak to you, the Police Intelligence School has started operation despite the fact that the permanent site is still undergoing construction…and between February and now we’ve been able to train about 1,500 intelligence operatives…and we are doing this training in collaboration with our partners from FBI and other secret Police organisations across the world.
“27 of our Police operatives are leaving the shores of this country today (Tuesday, December 3); they are going to Israel where they will also be undergoing a lot of trainings in the area of Intelligence Gathering.”
He added that the Police was not only training its men as operatives but also as trainers, so that they can come back and train their colleagues. He lauded the leadership of the Police for carefully putting competent people in charge of different areas of the reforms, claiming that this has contributed to the successes so far.
Speaking about the image of the Police, Mr Mba stressed that the negative image that the Police had was a reflection of the image that Nigeria carries as a nation. “We’ve got a general problem, while we try to address our own problem, we must also try to collectively address the general injustice and perception that are also trying to pull us down.”
Mr Mba reiterated the commitment of the Police to changing the Police for good and that the welfare of its men is another area of concern that is being worked on especially Housing for the men after retirement as well as Barracks renovations. He added that the issues of salaries were beyond them.
With the Police Cooperative Society doing excellently well and the newly established Police Mortgage Bank which will soon start giving out loans for Policemen to develop home of their own, beyond the current system in which the Police is building and subsidizing for the men. The Police is also making its own efforts within the resources under its control to improve the welfare of its operatives.
“The Police have managed to run businesses very well, we have the Police Micro-Finance Bank which today is the only one in Nigeria quoted in the Stock Exchange, the largest, and the most profitable.”
The Police spokesman admitted that mistakes have been made in the past, and therefore the current reforms are being executed carefully to avoid collaboration with the wrong individuals and organisations that will be hiding under the legitimacy of CSR to bribe the Police. Hence the creative approach being taken to internally inspire the desired changes.
He called on Nigerians to be part of a ‘no holds barred’ forum with the Inspector-General of Police on December 7 in Asaba, Delta State, where the IGP would be expected to present his score card to Nigerians. The event, which will be streamed live on the internet, will also throw open, telephone lines to afford Nigerian citizens the opportunity to chat with the Police authorities.
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