The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has expressed his determination to make community policing a success.
He stated this during his official take-over at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Egbetokun said that he would not tolerate any form of abuse of office, corruption, or misconduct among police officers, adding that strict punishment would be meted out to erring officers of the force.
In the coming days and months, the new IGP plans to unveil his strategies and tactics, aimed at securing the country and protecting Nigerians from various security challenges, including banditry and attacks by gunmen.
Egbetokun assured that the issue of salaries for previously recruited constables was being addressed, assuring that their salaries, arrears, and allowances would be paid by the end of the month.
He emphasized his commitment to involving every law-abiding citizen in the fight against crime under his leadership, stressing the importance of gathering human intelligence from communities alongside technical means of information gathering to effectively combat crimes.
“Apart from technical intelligence, we are also going to rely so much on human intelligence available in our communities. We are going to be proactive in our approach to solving our community problems,” he said.
Acknowledging the challenges in the implementation of the initiative, the new IGP assured that they would be resolved and community policing was going to work.
IGP Egbetokun said, “On community policing, there is a lot that we are going to do differently in the implementation of the community policing strategies that we are operating presently.
“I discussed that with the retiring IG, my predecessor, just before we came here and he told me all the problems we are facing with the implementation of the community policing strategies. We are not going to set it aside, we are going to continue with it, but we are going to review a lot of things. We are going to make it work.”
