Stop Mounting Road Check Points, IG Warns State CPs
The Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase, yesterday warned Commissioners of Police in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja to henceforth desist from mounting road checkpoints in the country.
He said that such action was never a descent way of preventing crimes but rather to extort money from motorists plying the nation’s roads.
Arase gave the warning in Ilorin, Kwara State capital while addressing the officers and men of the state police command during his official visit to the command headquarters in Ilorin.
The IG, who said the practice had to stop, told the CPs, the area commanders, Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) to intensify efforts on regular supervision and monitoring of the check-points to arrest officers mounting them.
Arase, who lamented that the monitoring team had arrested officers on daily basis, added that officers in the act would be discouraged when regular and effective monitoring was in place.
However, the IG said road checkpoints could be unavoidable in some cases, adding that policemen could mount check points to detect and arrest car thieves in some locations when vehicles are stolen.
The police boss also stressed the need for regular meetings with stakeholders in a town-hall forum as a means of crime prevention and control.
According to him, “I believe that you cannot police a community unless you are connected to the community. Community partnership in policing is very key. I will expect all DPOs, all area commanders and even the commissioners of police to once in a while assemble all the stakeholders in the state. What we expect you to do is to be able to drag in members of the public to assist you in very good information that will help in your investigations. We will expect the DPOs to organise at least, once in a month town hall meeting with strategic stakeholders and win the hearts and minds of the people. If you continue to violate their rights then they will not support you.”
He said: “The issue we are facing in this country is the poor public perception of police by members about the force. They believe that the police are bad and corrupt but none of them can do without the force.
“So since they cannot do without the force, we have to respect their rights and ensure that their rights are not violated when dealing with them. The more we win their hearts and minds, the more they have confidence in us. We cancelled the roadblocks and replaced them with the Safer Highways because we did not want you to start having problems with members of the public at the checkpoints. Most of those checkpoints were not actually crime prevention strategies robust enough for you people to do what you are supposed to do”.
Also speaking, the state police commissioner, Mr. Sam Okaula, said the state command was in urgent need of six Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), adding that the command could not boast of one presently.
The CP, who requested the supply of adequate riot equipment like tear smoke, said the command had always been faced with the problem of inadequate serviceable patrol vehicles, arms and ammunition.
Okaula also said there was manpower shortfall in the state command, adding that with establishment of 7,560 and a strength of 4,467, there was a deficit of 3,093, stressing that the shortfall was mostly within the rank and file cadre.