Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Baba Alkali has approved ten brand new patrol vehicles for the Cross River State Command to enhance policing.
Alkali made the announcement during a familiarization visit to the Police Command in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria.
The IGP, who commended the command for the feat achieved in crime reduction, said the police was working assiduously to keep Nigerians safe.
He stated, “we must encourage you I have asked the Commissioner for Police to come and carry Five (5) new vehicles next week alongside other compliments. I also urged him to pick up five additional pickup trucks before the end of next month to enhance patrols within Cross River State.
“The command is doing well, but there is room for improvement. So we must encourage the commitment, sacrifice, professionalism and interest in the job. There are things we need to do and those that we need not do to enhance internal security across the country,” Alkali stated.
Manpower development
On the recruiting and training of manpower to boost internal security, the IGP disclosed that 10 thousand people were currently undergoing training at the various colleges across the country for immediate deployment to all the states.
“We have started training 10 thousand recruits and as soon as we finish, all those we recruited from each local government in Cross River will be sent back to join those currently in service. This to some extent would address the manpower requirement in this state.
“The police encourage the use of the community policing officers, who have been trained and deployed to the communities. We also encourage synergy and collaboration with all the security agencies including the military so that we can collectively enhance crime prevention and control,” said the IGP. Pictures below:
Upgrading facilities
The IGP harped on the importance of training and retraining of officers and other personnel on the dynamics of crime evolution and prevention, which he noted needed to be tackled headlong with the renovation and upgrading of training its colleges around Nigeria.
He further noted that while the challenges of sufficient and befitting accommodation for policemen would be sorted, priority has been given to renovations and upgrading of its training facilities.
Alkali stated, “our attention has gone to our colleges and training institutions. But, we hope to focus on accommodation for policemen this 2022, which has already been captured in our budget. As soon as we get the money, we will do it.
“However, the decay is enormous and some of the conditions within the barracks will not require renovations, but outright pulling down and building new structures. This is because of age and serious dilapidation. The Nigerian Government has also set up a committee to look into housing as regards the police,” the IGP stated.
Further addressing the issue of enhance communication through the deployment of advance technology, the IGP said that police was expanding its state-of-the-arts digital communication systems from the command headquarters to division in Cross River State.
According to him, the digital communication facility transmits visual and audio in real time and was already deployed at the zonal and state commands, noting “it is very expensive to do, so, we are doing it in phases.”
Earlier, the Commissioner for Police, Cross River State Command, Mr. Aminu Alhassan appealed for additional patrol vehicles, renovation of offices within the command and expansion of existing police barracks to provide its over 4,300 personnel befitting accommodation.
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