A former minister of defence, Adetokunbo Kayode has stated that the attacks on police officers can be averted through community policing.<\/p>\n
Recall that the inspector-general of police (IGP), Usman Baba in April disclosed plans of the federal government to implement community policing across the country.<\/p>\n
This was stated by the former minister while speaking at a media briefing on Sunday at his country home in Ikaram Akoko, Ondo state.<\/p>\n
Kayode said the federal government needs to adopt community policing to address the security challenges in the country.<\/p>\n
There has been a series of attacks on security agencies in recent months, especially in the southern region.<\/p>\n
Kayode, also a former minister of justice, said if the officers are natives of the regions where they are posted, there will be reluctance to attack them.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s change the template \u2014 take a decision. We must have this community policing, and we can call it any name. For instance, all the police officers I have met who have been very nice, very kind, who have provided security for us are all from the north,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily for me, I\u2019m a northerner too. I speak Hausa; I lived in the north all my life. There\u2019s no big deal about it, but imagine when we have officers for instance in this village who cannot speak the local language. They don\u2019t know anybody; they are strangers; how will they communicate?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same thing when you have the bulk of the officers serving in the north, who are from the south-west and south-east. They can\u2019t speak the local language; they don\u2019t know anybody,<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you see the first law of intelligence is information is being able to hear, to understand. That has to be changed. All state commissioners of police should be posted to their regions for starters.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolicemen are being killed in some parts of the country. Let me assure you. If those policemen are from those areas, they will be reluctant to attack them. So, let\u2019s start with that first. But community policing is a done deal. It will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also advised the government to recruit more personnel into the armed forces, noting that the military is overstretched by the challenges facing the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military is already over-tasked and they are short-staffed. We know this and government knows this. I knew this when I was there and I tried in my own way to suggest how this should be done. Let us democratise recruitment into Nigerian military service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop taking money to allow people to join our services. It is wrong. It was there when I was there. I tried everything within my power, but again, when you spend one year in a place, you aren\u2019t going to do much. I\u2019m not giving an excuse. What I\u2019m saying is this is one of the ways forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I don\u2019t know maybe we have up to 100,000 military personnel. What is that? A country of 200 million and we have our youths roaming the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kayode was appointed as minister of defence in 2010, when Goodluck Jonathan was acting president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former minister of defence, Adetokunbo Kayode has stated that the attacks on police officers can be averted through community policing. Recall that the inspector-general of police (IGP), Usman Baba in April disclosed plans of the federal government to implement community policing across the country. This was stated by the former minister while speaking at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":65526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14713,83,655,14714,4896],"class_list":["post-65521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-adetokunbo-kayode","tag-insecurity","tag-ondo-state","tag-security-officers","tag-usman-baba"],"yoast_head":"\n