By Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri
The acting Inspector General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, has assured Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno State that the police and other security agencies will soon provide adequate security necessary for their return to their homelands.
The IG gave the assurance at the weekend while flagging off the police medical outreach and distribution of relief materials to IDPs at the Muna camp in Maiduguri.
He noted that since his appointment, Borno State was the second state he had visited, insisting that the state remains dear to his heart, having spent over five years in the state as mobile police force commandant.
Idris, who was accompanied to the camp by the Comptroller General of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Mohammed Babandede, the Commandant General of Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mohammed Gana Amadu and Comptroller General of Nigerian Prison, Mohammed Japana, said he came along with the service chiefs to facilitate the deployment of their personnel back to the areas they vacated at the peak of the Boko Haram crisis and for security and normalcy to be instituted in the areas.
He said they were also in the state to assess the security situation and also have meeting with the military with a view to strategise on how to deploy his men and other security agencies to the librated local government areas and to successfully restore civil authority.
He said the medical outreach would provide succour to the IDPs.
Idris said in order to effectively fight crime and criminality, the police would establish forensic laboratory in all police divisions, create data base and work closely with the National Identity Management Commission.
The Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, had earlier during the visit on him at the Government House by the heads of the nation’s security outfits led by the IG, commended the unity of purpose among the security agencies as demonstrated by the visit of the security chiefs.
He lamented that the state was treated as if it was not part of the nation during the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that at a point, 22 local government areas were taken by the insurgents and that the state capital Maiduguri was at the verge of falling under Boko Haram as they repeatedly attack the town.
He said the trend however changed with the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari with the military recording successes and all the occupied communities liberated.
He said today, there is no territory under Boko Haram occupation.
