ABUJA (Interior Ministry’ Report)- President Muhammadu Buhari has said that efforts are on-going to upgrade the budgetary allocation of the Nigeria Police Force in order to improve its operations.
President Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Interior, Lt Gen. (Rtd) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, made this disclosure at the 2017 National Security Summit in Abuja.
He also disclosed that plans were under way to recruit more personnel to address the manpower shortage in the Force.
He however urged the organized private sector to intensify their efforts in complementing Government further by investing more in the security sector in pursuant to their Corporate Social Responsibilities.
The President enjoined Nigerian citizens and the international community to lend a hand to the Government in tackling the security challenges, saying “the world over, security management is not solely the responsibility of security personnel, but that of the entire populace and even the international community.”
In his remark, the Guest of Honour, the Minister of Interior, Lt Gen. (Rtd) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, stated that part of the solution to the recurring farmers-herders clashes and other criminality in Nigeria lay in building the capacity of law enforcement personnel; inter-agency intelligence-sharing; Domestication of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 by the states, and Effective border security.
Gen. Dambazau said that the government has also established the Agro Rangers Squad to provide security in the agricultural sector, as well as protect farmers and herders’ lives, adding that the implementation of the Immigration Regulations 2017, which also include the execution of the ECOWAS Protocol for the movement of people, would greatly decrease the recurring farmers-pastoralists clashes and other related criminality across the nation.
In a welcome address, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibahim Idris, stressed the importance of the summit, given the security situation in the country, adding that with the cooperation of all Nigerians, the Police would be able to devise strategies with which to control the security challenges in the country.
He however added that the Nigeria Police Force needed to recruit more personnel in order to meet the United Nations’ standard of one policeman to 400 citizens.
The 2017 National Security Summit, with the theme, “Forging Partnerships for Effective Strategies to Curb the Menace of Kidnapping, Recurring Farmers-Herders Clashes and Criminality in Nigeria”, was organized by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), in conjunction with Leadership Newspapers Group Limited and National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria.
