Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, recently spoke to journalists in Abuja on his plans for the Police
What hope do Nigerians have that the Police will be better with you as IGP?
I have come in as a very defining moment in our national life. I know that the expectations are high. I have been in the system for quite some time too and in strategic positions in the force. In personnel, you first take a look at our personnel profile. We warehouse the best you can have in the system. But, what we have not been able to do over the years is for us to build on the capacity of our officers. So, one of the areas where I am very interested in is trying to delegate our needs assessments, look at areas that we need to concentrate on and give my officers purposeful training that will make them perform in those offices. Such departments may be administration, operations, investigations or intelligence. Whichever of those areas we look at, we should be able to develop the capacity of the officers to be able to develop on their statutory mandates. The other area is public perception of the Nigeria Police Force. We have a negative public perception, whether rightly or wrongly.
Perceptions, I must say, are often subjective. At the same time, there are certain things that members of the public would expect the policeman to do. They will not want a police officer to be corrupt; they will want him to be civil, polite, and to treat Nigerians with respect. Nigerians naturally expect the police to give them the needed respect since the tax payers’ money is invested on the police. They will demand a lot from you and at the same time, we will see how we can connect to the community.
This is because there is no police force in the world that can perform without information from members of the community. So, you must be able to win the confidence of the community for you to get that information. We are working to gain the public confidence in information management especially in areas where the public think that whatever information that is given to the police would be divulged. It is going to be a two way thing. This is your police force. You cannot bring any police force from any other part of the world.
Globally, if you look at policing in advanced countries like in Europe, America and Britain, they have gone through this same process of re-modelling themselves. It is not a one-fixe thing. And so, members of the public should also learn to be very patient with the police force. I will give you an example: a murder case occurred and Nigerians are very anxious for the police to get a result. They don’t take into consideration the limitations that the Nigeria Police Force is working with. When you talk about the professionalism of the average policeman, it is not enough for him to be able to confront those issues he is dealing with if there is no technical platform to back it up. If you go through Central London twice in a period of four hours, you are captured within the system.
So, in case anything happens, it is just to focus on that particular movement. That is why the Metropolitan Police Force has a 90 per cent success rate in terms of homicide cases. You cannot do it and escape the eagle eye of their surveillance system. Those are the issues we are dealing with. Intelligence is key in policing.
What then are your expectations on the issue of applying intelligence in fighting crime?
I do not want a situation where people are detained unnecessarily. I expect that my policemen should be sufficiently trained enough to be able to gather evidential proof about those cases.
Bank fraud is a ready example. There are cases where you can get records from the bank, corporate affairs. You assemble these things before you invite whosoever you think you have to invit. That way, you limit the pre-trial detention period that suspects would have to stay in our facilities. That is one area where we really have to work on because, if you invite someone because you said he has committed an offence,, you keep him in custody, then you start looking for evidence. The period you have kept him there will be very long and the relations start asking for bail. When they start asking for bail, the corruption circle is completed. To grant that bail, you start putting conditions here and there and in the final analysis, money changes hands. Those areas where I know are capable of exposing my officers to corruption; I want to remove them from the system. I have already directed that on no account should anybody be detained at a police station where you don’t have sufficient evidence to confront the person. Within 48 hours, you should be able to make up your mind if the truth is being told or you are able to keep the person in custody.
Do you have enough policemen to police 170 million Nigerians and equipment to do the job effectively?
You can never have sufficient policemen to police 170 million Nigerians. People always talk about this United Nations ratio. Even that one, you can only situate it against societies that already have good technical platforms. The United Kingdom is an example. We do not have a technical platform. What people try to do now is visibility policing. You position your men in strategic points so you create that psychological reassurance that the society is being policed. In Abuja, for example, instead of dotting the streets with police officers, you can position them strategically so that anywhere you go, by the time you are driving from Shehu Shagari Way to the other junction, you see them by the way. It does not presuppose that you have sufficient manpower.
No. there is no police organisation in the world that will ever say they have sufficient manpower. That is why community partnerships in policing is very important in internal security management.This is because, if you are able to win the confidence of the community, half of your job is done. Somebody picks a phone, sees someone who has parked for a long period in a lonely street or somewhere, and called the nearest police officer. That person can easily go there and verify. But, here in Nigeria, there are some of us who don’t care. In as much as he does not affect you, you walk away and say ‘what’s my business?Tomorrow they may say I should come to give statements.’