Juliana Francis
The Executive Director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), a non-profit organiation, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, has commended the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alkali Usman Baba, for getting tough on police officers who engage in acts that bring the image of the police to disrepute.
According to Nwanguman, these actions show that the Nigeria Police Force was beginning to prioritise discipline and accountability, which he said, had become reassuring.
Nwanguma said: “In the past one month alone, the NPF, on the directives of the IGP has dismissed and dekitted police officers for various acts of misconduct, corrupt practice, extortion, incivility, and brutality. This is reassuring. While we continue to point out the shortcomings of the police in terms of conduct and performance, we must equally acknowledge and commend them when they do good things as we are witnesses to. Even in criticizing the police as we should do – because we want the police to work for us, we must be measured and fair in our criticisms considering that the Nigeria police are themselves victims of the bad political system.”
He also stated that annual budgetary allocations to the NPF were not enough to meet the needs of one Zonal Command. “Funds appropriated or donated to the Police Trust Fund to augment poor budgetary allocations, to provide equipment, training, and retraining, and to boost the welfare and morale of officers are manipulated and mismanaged and become subjects of endless investigation by anti-corruption agencies. We must continue to support the NPF while also holding them accountable in the discharge of their important mandate and duty to serve and protect,” said Nwanguma.
