The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has
said the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has perfected plans to withdraw its mobile
personnel attached to important personalities in the country back to the
barracks.
According to him, the measure was intended to bring the
police closer to Nigerians.
Idris disclosed this on Friday during an interactive session
with a group of civil society organisations under the auspices of “The
Situation Room’’ in Abuja.
He said that the force had created additional mobile police
squadron in states to enhance police operations, adding that Nigerians would
now have more Special Protection Units (SPUs) in the commands in the zones.
The IGP said: “we will withdraw all mobile police back to
barracks to concentrate on dealing with serious law and order situation.
“It means that we are stopping deployment of mobile police
from protecting VIPs in the country because that is not where they should
serve.
“This is to allow us have enough men on the ground to deal
especially with the issues of kidnapping.
“We are creating new SPUs in each command; so, virtually all
commands will have them, and with the support of the state governments, most of
them would be deployed specially to states.’’
Idris said that the decision was basically to stem the cases
of incessant kidnapping, adding that it had become a challenge that the force
received hundreds of cases daily.
He called for the establishment of special courts to address
the cases of kidnapping.
According to him, the public feel that kidnapers are not
being prosecuted enough so there is need to seek strict measure to punish them.
The IGP said that with the creation of special task force
squadron on terrorism, a lot of kidnappers had been arrested and that the force
had 2, 000 suspected kidnappers across the country.
He reiterated the force’s commitment to apprehending the
notorious and wanted kidnapper from Benue commonly called “Ghana’’, saying that
his days were numbered.
He thanked Nigerians for their support and called for more
collaboration to curb crime “because it will take a collaborative effort to win
against crime in the country’’.
By Chijioke Jannah
