CLEEN Foundation recently trained members of Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) on what Gender Based Violence is all about and how to prevent it. The participants were drawn from six different states in Nigeria, among them was the National Chairman of the PCRC in Nigeria, Alhaji Mogaji Ibrahim-Olaniyan. JULIANA FRANCIS met him at the training in Ikeja and had a chat with him.
What is your take on the members of the PCRC being trained on checkmating and preventing Gender Based Violence?
I must say that PCRC being selected to be part of the training is a great blessing to PCRC. The PCRC is a group of people who believe in serving our community through partnership with the Nigerian Police. From the angle of the public, they trust us more than the Nigerian Police, which makes our job easier.
As PCRC, we mediate between the two sides. Our strength is over 40 million in this country alone. We are now in the diaspora.
If you notice the changes in the diaspora attack against the Nigerian Police, that’s part of our good work. It’s a great joy for PCRC to partner with the CLEEN Foundation. The Today programme is just about training the trainers.
For this training, CLEEN Foundation picked participants from six states; Edo, Delta, Ogun, Lagos, Imo and Enugu. After this programme, on our own, with our abilities, we are going to turn all these around, we will direct all our members that participated to train others at state level.
Two from each geopolitical zone, will go and train members at their geopolitical zone. All of them; we are going to bring them together on our platform. We started using PCRC platform to train our teaming members.
We are going to disseminate this information, not only among PCRC members, but across the globe. The training is very information and educative and we appreciate it.
What informs this subject matter, Gender-Based Violence?
The father of all crime is a drug, and among our youths, the drug is what they are using. We need to do whatever we can to sensitise our youth.
I have the National Youth Coordinator in this team who came for the CLEEN Foundation training. I have the National Women Coordinator, represented by the Southeast Women Coordinator. Drug abuse is a major crime among youths today. It is rampant.
What is the relationship between the youths’ taking drugs and Gender-Based Violence?
Among all crimes, drug abuse or ingestion is the grandparent. It gives rise to other crimes, including GVB. That’s why in PCRC, we are working with all security agencies to check crime and criminality.
After the training, we are going to educate a lot of people. We’ll make sure we send this message across, especially to our youth and women’s platforms.
What new things did you learn today?
I learned a lot. Even for a member, you know, we used to be regimental, we have national officers, that is how we met it. We are working with the police. I rose from the lower level to this present position as a national chairman. I’ve been in the division, in command, state.
But today, I gave approval to my member, that they should attend and speak their minds freely at the training. During the training, most of them were seen and heard expressing their minds. They are matured people and they are going to be matured trainers.
Under your watch as national chairman, how many of your members have been punished or reprimanded for involvement in unprofessional conduct?
In the PCRC, if anyone goes against the norms, we show him or her the way out.
Does PCRC have statistics on the number of members punished for unwelcome practices?
To the best of my knowledge, even before you become a member, PCRC has to make an effort to know more about you.
I’m just two years plus in the office. My first assignment was to sanitize PCRC. You can see the level of people that represented us in this gathering.
If we notice, or anybody calls our attention to somebody, even if your children are in PCRC and do something that contravenes the law, we will show you the way out. This is because we believe that charity should begin at home.
I recalled that when I was the national vice chairman in charge of southwest, one of our member’s son was alleged to be a cultist. We worked with the police to arrest him and also suspended his father. The father went to court against us and lost. He is no more a member of PCRC. If you want to be a member of PCRC, you have to be above board.
You earlier spoke about the killing of the DPO in Kano. How is PCRC synergising with the Police on the case?
When the hoodlums attacked the police station in Rano, Kano State, my national public security secretary and Kano state chairman, rushed to the scene and were on the ground to rescue the DPO and rushed him to the hospital.
The hoodlums beat the DPO mercilessly to the point of trying to kill him right there. The PCRC, Kano State, took him to the hospital.
My national public security called me. I directed them to go and pay all the bills. We did all these, but eventually we lost the man. He late DPO is from Nasarawa state. But his wife is from Kaduna State.
The family settled in Kaduna State. I’ve directed Kaduna PCRC to meet the wife and the family.
I’m preparing Kano PCRC to follow the corpse to Nasarawa and they are already doing that. Nasarawa PCRC are already waiting to receive these corpse. On our part, we are not going to wait for the police insurance. After I return to Abuja, I will pay visit to the family and will support the family.
I want to contact my colleagues in the National Working Committee. We can assist one of the children of the late DPO. Under my leadership, we have assisted 17 children of police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty to tertiary education and overseas studies.
I caused a press statement to be released, condemning the attack and killing of the DPO. In fact, if not because of my position as the National Chairman of PCRC, I would have blamed the Nigerian Police for allowing the Rano people to still be walking free. These Police officers are making sacrifices for us.
If it was the Nigeria Army that lost a constable yesterday, Rano community will not be Rano community by now. But here we are, we have lost a whole a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) in a position of a DPO. The rank of a CSP is a bridge to becoming a Commissioner of Police.
We see the tolerance and maturity of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun and what the Nigeria Police Stands for. Despite all this, people are condemning the Police.
We all know, even if it’s the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, or Nigeria Customs Service, something would have happened after the brutal way that the DPO was killed. Rano is at peace, enjoying, and everyone is going about their normal businesses in Rano.
Nigerians will not come out to defend and commend the Nigeria Police Force under IGP Kayode Egbetokun. The Kano CP and PCRC Kano State Chairman, and national officers there, have not slept since the incident happened.
They are moving around; they took the DPO to the hospital, and worked tirelessly to ensure that hoodlums do not take over the city. Police, despite losing their colleague, the DPO, are still protecting the city. They didn’t withdraw their services.
I hereby say kudos to IGP Kayode Egbetokun. PCRC sympathize with him and the CP of Kano State. We sympathize with the family of the DPO.
What is your advice to the federal government concerning security in different parts of Nigeria?
I will commend the Federal government! I commend the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We give kudos to the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, a former Police Officer, who is the National Security Adviser of Nigeria. We know his value and we also commend him. Since he came on board, there’s being a drastic change in insecurity.
It is clear, they are winning the war against crime and criminality. We need to advise members of public, not the federal government. We see a lot, and we have information. The criminals are tenants to some landlords, but these landlords failed to report these tenants that are criminals.
The criminals are co-tenants to some people, but these neighbours, who knew their co-tenants were criminals, failed to report them. The criminals are using our markets, and they patronise hotels that we are patronising. They share boundaries with us, and they are in our houses.
We rented house from them, and we failed to expose them. We need to do more. The Federal government should do more, especially for the Nigeria police.
The Police are not well motivated. They are the poorest set in the security sector.
Customs and Civil Defence are better paid then the Nigeria Police personnel. However, when we talk about internal security, Nigeria Police are the first.
I’m calling on the Federal Government to do more by supporting the police with the necessary and right equipment, and living wage, to motivate them.
