As the PPROs/Police Communications Experts’ Conference enters its 3rd day, the Force Public Relations Officers of the Nigeria Police, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, have assured Nigerians of a better public relations platform, better responses to complaints, and better access to and treatment of people in all areas.
Adejobi further said that all the police public relations officers have been mandated to be active on social media.
“My boss, DIG Frank Mba, started the training programme when he was the force PRO, and he has organised 2 trainings, and I have to continue the training conference. This is the major platform for PPROs and communication experts in the police to gather together. Apart from learning, we acquire knowledge; we always get familiar with each other.
“We arrived at the theme of this conference based on a survey of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Country Office Nigeria, which emphasised our oversight function to serve members of the public. We have Complaint Response Units, Public Complaint Bureau, IG Monitoring, Provost, and an X-Squad. I control two: CRU and PCB, and the CRU has been established in all state commands and formations. It was established by the Nigeria Police Act 2020 (as amended), Adejobi said
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Country Office Nigeria (CONIG) is one of the major partners of the conference, as they partner with the Nigeria Police to better address police impunity through strengthened oversight and accountability mechanisms.
The UNODC aims to enhance the ability of the Nigeria Police to tackle police impunity by strengthening oversight and accountability mechanisms, which involves providing support to the Complaints Response Unit to effectively and efficiently address public complaints of police misconduct.
Also, they aim to support the Nigeria Police in building a sustainable capacity to receive, investigate, and respond to public complaints; its outreach and engagement with the public are strengthened, and CRU’s skill in data management is used to support Nigeria Police management decisions and strengthen accountability to the public.
“We need to move in tandem with the current dimension in the media space, and that is why we have come together to learn so many things about it and see how we can receive complaints and process the complaint and make sure justice prevails and bridge the gap between the public and the Nigeria police.
“The major takeaway is that we should use our platform, our complaint unit, and our oversight unit to strengthen the PR Department of the Police.
“We can help the IGP, the management team, and the CPs by using the PR tools to lessen some of the problems we have. We believe that there is nothing public relations cannot do.
“We are encouraging our officers, PROs, CRU Head, and PCB Head to please embrace the principles of public relations. Attends to complaints, attends to people, and listens to them. If people’s complaints are not listened to, they will escalate it to social media, so we are telling them the right thing to do; they can use PR principles and approaches to actually help the Nigeria police to achieve results.
“That era has gone when those who have complaints against a policeman, the complainant or witness, are mandated to come to Abuja from Port Harcourt. They can make use of electronic platforms such as Zoom and Skype. You don’t need to be physically present in Abuja.
“We will come up with a strong communiqué to be submitted to the office of the Inspector General of Police for implementation. We actually want to use our PR unit and other units to get closer to the members of the public. Adejobi
Among the major topics discussed on day 3 of the conference are principles and ethics of journalism; citizen reporting and the use of mobile apps; social media and digital public relations in police accountability; managing police social media channels for public accountability; monitoring online public sentiment for proactive policing; and a practical workshop on developing an effective police social media strategy.
