A former Commissioner of Police, Mr Lawrence Alobi, says the Federal Government requires strong political will to tackle insecurity in the country.
Alobi, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja, also blamed the security challenges in the country on corruption.
“The government must have the political will to tackle insecurity in the country as security and policing are technologically driven,” he said.
“The federal government should have the political will to adequately fund security agencies and also train them for effective service delivery,” he said.
“If the money stolen by unscrupulous politicians was used to purchase equipment for security agencies we will not be where we are today.
The commissioner said that corruption was one of those things contributing to the insecurity in the country.
Alobi said that if government could acquire drones to monitor the environment, it will go a long way to check the security situation in the country
He noted that government also needed to secure the country`s porous borders to check influx of illegal migrants to check the proliferation of arms.
Alobi urged citizens to contribute their own part by volunteering genuine information to security agencies.
“Crime is an aggression against the people and not against the Federal Government alone,” he said.
He also called on the media to enlighten the citizens on the need to contribute to the fight against insecurity.
He said that traditional rulers also have roles to play in the fight against insecurity as custodians of tradition and cultures of their societies.
“If there is no peace in their domains, they cannot rule. They have critical roles to play to ensure that peace prevails among the members of their communities.
“They have no power to adjudicate over criminal cases but they can work hand in hand with the security agencies by volunteering genuine information from their members,” he said.
On the role of police in internal security, Alobi said an untrained police officer was a threat to the society and the institution.
He said that the police officer required capacity building and training on professional conduct to imbibe democratic norms and values.
He urged the police management to retrain their officers on democratic policing to avoid conflict with the people.
He said that lack of effective supervision of police officers was the cause of misconduct of policemen.
“The current Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu is making efforts to implement the police reform to re-invent the police force.
“They need to make themselves worthy of the peoples` trust by their conduct. The conduct of policemen can cause lack of trust among the citizens,” he said
