By IGP Suleiman Abba
Introduction:
The purpose of our meeting is mainly to further strategise on how best we can alley the fears of members of the public in particular with regards to the exercise of their franchise, to which I want to say without any hesitation that the Police is prepared and will continue to prepare further to make sure that from the date of the elections we will provide that maximum security required for them to go and cast their votes.
We also want to reinstate that we will make adequate arrangements to provide security for INEC officials who are the managers of the conduct of the elections, including the materials they would be using for the elections, so that they are not only well protected so that they discharge their responsibilities efficiently.
We acknowledge the fact that there have been some incidents of security, particularly to do with the conducts of the campaigns, but it is also noted that arrests have been made. First and foremost a lot was prevented, more than half of the states in the federation did not witness any incident at all and where incidents occurred, arrests have been made, investigations are going on. Once we have enough evidence that a crime has been committed, we prosecute. Let me also draw your attention to the fact that some crimes may not be the responsibility of the Police only. Some crimes may be state crimes and there are lead agencies in the regard. So whether alone or combines we will ensure that every effort is made to maintain the integrity of the country and protect lives and property.
We are happy to note that in the next one week according to the political parties schedules the campaigns would have been over unofficially, because they can still go on campaigning within the period as provided by the law but the scheduled campaigns through rallies are ending in a few days time.
Strategy:
We are going to concentrate on preventing violence, enough has been said on violence free election, for us it is not about saying, we appreciate what has been said, what is being said and the concerns of all but we want to assure all that this is not the first time we are meeting, we have been meeting and we have been strategising and we have been implementing those strategies. In most of those meetings a lot of instructions were issued out and I must say that the Commissioners of Police (CP) have done their best in implementing those directives.
We are going to sit down and do more, not only in preventing but also on how best to deal with incidents that are unpreventable, that is where our efforts in prevention are not completely successful and the incident happens, we will strategise on how best to arrest the situation. Most importantly, we wish to assure the electorate that the Police will provide adequate security of lives and property before, during and after the elections. This, we will do in conjunction with other law enforcement and security agencies.
I want to say that we cannot disclose some of the strategies we are using to prevent these crimes; we are also not going to disclose some of the strategy we are using to arrest some of these situations. However, let me say that in order to prevent violence either before, during or after the elections Assistant Inspectors are to lead the CPs in their zones, so that in each state commands they will bring together a standard for the prevention of crimes, violence in these elections. They will bring together all the contestants to discuss how best to work together and perhaps come out with peace accords.
The aim here is that once this is done and it is done whole heartedly their followers will take it for good and be partners in activities that will ensure peace and security during the 2015 elections.
Like I said I will site where incidents happened and I will site one of the strategies that we will use. One of it is that each command will issue out their social media platforms, the face book, email, twitter and telephone numbers, to members of the public so that members of the public as well as other stakeholders can report incidents where they are about to happen, if they are privileged to know when they are about to happen, or at least to report on time when the incidents are happening. Most importantly is that the members of the public should be able to reach out to the state commands and report incidents. At the Force Headquarters, Abuja, the office of the AIG operations will be in charge like it is being done in the command.
For the period of elections and particularly on the elections day proper, the Directorate of Operations would be in charge. Office of Police Public Relations Office (PPRO) which will be collecting this information will work hand in hand with the Directorate of Operations which is responsible for managing the abilities of the joint operations as well as the control room to make for quick response.
Relocation out of fear of violence:
We take note of the report that some people are relocating. Movement from one part of the country, if it is true, I don’t think is best the solution. The best solution is for all stakeholders to come out together and work for peace, peace for all of us. I want to repeat that the purpose for the establishment of political parties as provided in Section 24 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is for such parties to align its activities with the provision of Chapter Two of the Constitution. That is to say to come out, contest, take over governance and work for the peace, security and progress of the people; security and welfare of the people. If this is the provision it means it is the politicians that should be the ones to come out and convince their followers to work for peace.
I also want to say that Section 24 of the Constitution also makes it very clear that every individual has the responsibility to contribute in assisting members of the public to achieve the peace we all need for the development of our country, therefore everyone has that responsibility. So relocating is not the solution. Convincing those are planning for crisis, planning for violence against it is the best solution and politicians should be the ones to do this. That is why a lot of efforts have been made including their signing of the peace accord and making of resolutions in their code of conduct to prevent their members from being recruited for violence, not to use their members from being recruited for violence, assisting law enforcement agents in ensuring that violence do not take place, even handing over their members who are involved in violence. They also made a resolution not to seek for the release of their members who are arrested for violence.
All these are provided in their code of conduct, so it is a collective responsibility to come up together and work towards it. That is why I said that part of things we will do ahead of the polls is to bring politicians to come together and sign peace accords so that their members will understand that this game is played in peace, so that they will understand that this game is played according to the rules, not according to the wishes of individuals.
We want to assure Nigerians and visitors too that we will work hand in hand with our colleagues to make sure that the peace is maintained, to make sure that law and order is maintained on the days of the elections and even the days that will follow and we have done a lot to ensure that this is achieved.
Members of the public are witnesses to the fact that CPs have done their best at sensitising the officers and men of their commands on their roles, on the provisions of the law and how to go about discharging that responsibilities.
Inter-agency Cooperation:
We have the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security which was set up ahead of the 2011 elections and we saw it work in the 2011 elections. The CPs and the INEC Resident electoral Commissioners (RECs) are co-chairmen of the committees. Activities of the committee were revived months back and have seen CPs at the state level holding meetings with politicians, political parties and other stakeholders and members of the public. They have been doing a lot and have gone very far, strengthening and cementing their activities, including taking of and putting rivalries behind them.
I am not aware that there has been any problem with any of the security agencies with regards to the abilities of the committee. They committee will continue to do its work to enlighten members of the public on the fact that fact that security agencies have undertaken to ensure that elections are conducted in a safe and secure environment.
We have also met several times at the national level, as recent as one week ago and we not only assured ourselves of our readiness to cooperate on the elections but also to direct their commands to submit names of operatives that they would be deploying for the polling days activities. These officers will be deployed by the CPs to avoid duplications and also ensure maximum utilization of the resources which all of the members have decided to bring together.
So inter-agency rivalry has been eliminated and for these elections they will be non-existent.
Logistics:
Inadequate logistics and shortage of manpower have been the major impediments to the optimum performance of the Nigeria Police. It is in response to my request in this regard that the federal government under the president’s Transformation Agenda, approved 2, 564 operational vehicles for the Nigeria Police.
The first batch of these patrol vehicles: 170 Nissan NP 300 Hard Body Patrol Pick-up Vans; 129 Nissan Frontier Double Cabin Patrol Vehicles; 50 Nissan Patrol 4WD Jeeps; 10 Toyota Double Cabin Armoured Patrol Vans and 4 Ford 550 Model 4×4 State-of-the-Art Armoured Personnel Carriers; have been delivered to the Nigeria Police.
Let me thank the federal government for keeping their promise that it will certainly improve on our services. I look forward to the day that on every street you will be seeing Police vehicles patrolling to make sure the streets are protected and the homes are safe.
I want to say that we will continue to do our best to ensure that the delivery is completed. We have no doubt that once a contract is entered and delivery has started that delivery will be completed. I want to believe that ahead of the election date they vehicles would be delivered and we will utilise them for the purpose for which they are meant for. I think we will do our best to make that the vehicles are judiciously used and maintained.
We are bringing up vehicles that are down for the purpose of the elections. Quite a number of Lorries which we use for conveying of manpower, especially for emergency are being worked on to bring them back on the road.
There are other requirements that we have been receiving and we will continue to ensure that they are properly utilised.
Manpower:
Man power is important and we wish we had recruited more personnel before the elections. However, efforts are being made to ensure that we utilise what we have. We will synergise with our colleagues to ensure that we use what we have.
Except of address presented by the Inspector General of Police, IGP Suleiman Abba, at a meeting with senior police officers, CPs and above, on February 2, 2014.