- Police Service Commission Chairman, Solomon Arase, criticizes the lack of training for military officers in gathering evidence against terrorists in North East Nigeria
- Arase calls for the police to lead the fight against terrorism and internal security, citing their expertise in evidence gathering and prosecution
According to Solomon Arase, Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), military officers deployed to areas where terrorists operate freely, particularly in the North East, lack training and knowledge to gather evidence against the criminals, which is why their activities are increasing.
Arase, a former Inspector-General of Police, also criticized releasing and reintegrating arrested bandits into society without proper profiling, noting that most of them eventually return to crime, causing more harm to the region.
On the other hand, he demanded that the police take over the fight against terrorism and other crimes from the military, claiming that police officers were trained to secure crime scenes, gather evidence, and prosecute criminals, which differed from the military’s standard operating procedures.
Arase was quoted as saying this in Abuja when he hosted Elizabeth Macleod, the police advisor for the United Kingdom High Commission in Nigeria’s Lake Chad Basin Support Framework; the leadership of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms led by its Director-General, D.I. Arabi; and a delegation from NTA News 24 led by its General Manager, Fatima Abbas Hassan.
In a statement issued by the commission’s spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani, on Sunday, the PSC boss advised the federal government to reduce the military component of the insurgency war and allow the police, the lead agency in internal security, to lead the battle.
Arase said;
The police are properly trained for internal security and leading the battle will curb the activities of the terrorists in the North East. More convictions of these criminals in the North East would serve as a deterrent to others and eventually reduce the spate of crime and criminality in the region.”
The military deployed to the troubled regions in the North East have no such training and this has resulted in a low rate of prosecution of offenders and a conviction rate less than five per cent, the statement read.
The former IGP lamented that the problem with Nigeria’s counter-insurgency mission was a lack of inter-agency collaboration and intelligence sharing among security agencies, adding that the conviction rate of less than 5% was disproportional to arrests and did not send the right signals.
Earlier, Macleod, the police advisor, had informed Arase that she was based in Maiduguri, Borno State and that the project’s goal was to assist the Nigeria Police in Borno State in combating insecurity in the state. The United Kingdom High Commission in Nigeria also funded the project and implemented by Adam Smith International.
In his response, the PSC chairman stated that the commission would be delighted to collaborate with the Support Framework and benefit from what they do in the North East.
He also stated that the Police Recruitment Board will be established soon, although the commission and the police are not working together for the benefit of national security, and that all modalities are in place for the recruitment to begin.
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