Police officers have been warned against trampling on the rights of the citizenry in the course of discharging as such will earn them the trust and confidence among the people.
Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Southwest, DIG Abiodun Alabi stated this on Monday in Ado Ekiti during his familiarisation visit to the Ekiti State Police Command where he urged the police personnel to collaborate with critical stakeholders to rid the state of crimes and criminalities.
The former Lagos and Bauchi states Commissioner of Police who also had interactions with stakeholders urged them to embrace community policing to make the society safe.
He said, “I want to appeal to all our officers that the only way you can earn the trust and confidence of the members of the public is by treating them as human beings that they are.
“I am an advocate of human rights and I abhor completely any breach or abuse of fundamental human rights of our people. We cannot continue to trample on, and think they will continue to support you or assist you in your policing strategies or plans. Abuse of human rights is one of the negative narratives or perception that the members of the public have about the Nigeria Police Force.
“We observe human rights. In fact, it is one of our cardinal duties in our Police Act of 2020 as amended, that you must protect human rights. So, it is one of your cardinal duties, you have no choice than to conform with the provision by protecting human rights instead of abusing it.
“If we treat our fellow human beings with the dignity that they deserve, we will earn their trust and confidence and they will be ever willing to partner with you to succeed in that task of policing,” DIG Alabi said.
Speaking further on the importance of collaboration with the critical stakeholders in policing the community, the DIG said, “I want to corroborate the CP with statistics at my disposal, that Ekiti State is the most peaceful state in the country.
“But, I want to warn that, it is not yet Uhuru and we are not yet at the Eldorado. We don’t have to rest on our oars, we have to keep on working assiduously, relentlessly and selflessly to ensure that we sustain the tempo and even strife hard to ensure that we have zero level of care in Ekiti.
“It is possible proactively, and with collaboration and synergy with all critical stakeholders in our various communities, we can prevent crimes from occurring. Community policing has come to stay. It is even a policy that the Federal Government has entrenched for us to imbibe and work with for us to make our communities crime-free,” DIG Alabi said.
He added that the police cannot do this work alone, noting that security is everybody’s business.
He however emphasised that with constant engagement and meetings to appraise performances and areas of challenge and more importantly, sharing intelligence gathering and information, the people will make the job easy, “We won’t take your support for granted.”
The state’s Commissioner of Police, CP Adeniran Akinwale who said apart from the challenges of inadequate manpower and logistics confronting the command, there is also incessant transfer of personnel out of the Command, both from the Force Headquarters and Zonal levels.
He appealed to the visiting DIG to help in stemming the tide, adding that, “The command needs more hands than the strength at its disposal,” to sustain the peace being witnessed in the state and even do better.