Dele Ogbodo in Abuja
The acting Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, on Thursday constituted a specialised coordinating centre to streamline all foreign and international donors’ assistance to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
He said the centre would be headed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police.
Addressing participants at an international technical retreat sponsored by the British High Commission in Abuja, he said the technical and financial assistance from all donors to the Police would now be well coordinated to address the security challenges facing the country.
He said: “Upon my appointment, I established the Donor Aid coordinating unit to collate and streamline some of the assistance that the Police are receiving from international partners and foreign organisations in Nigeria.
“We are receiving a lot of assistance from these agencies but the security challenges have assumed a global dimension as we share the same problems. This forum is a means by which we can collectively address the challenges.”
According to him, the stakeholders’ meeting is to ensure a coordinated synergy between the Police and the donors to addressing challenges facing the Force and the country at large, adding that we need to see how we can organise ourselves in a proper way to collate these assistance and focus it towards addressing the challenges of the NPF.
Idris said: “You are all aware that the Police have a lot of challenges and that we cannot fix it alone and the reality is that technologically, you are more advanced than us and we believe that you will lead us to that technological age. We need your support and assistance.”
In a remark, the facilitator and Technical Adviser to the IG, Prof. Olu Ogunshakin, said on assumption of duty the acting IG realised the importance of how we can harmonize a centre from all contributions, donations and technical assistance being given to the Police.
He said: “Unlike in the past, we thought that we should have a coordinating unit that will assist to get this because a lot of countries are ready to assist but they need this centre that will coordinate these activities so that we can get the best impact for Nigerians and the Police.”
In a related development, the IG in a courtesy visit to the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali, solicited the collaboration of Customs in intelligence sharing towards addressing crimes in the society
He said: “Synergy is paramount to face security challenges and that is why I introduced inter-agencies collaboration centre at the Police, when I was appointed Acting IG.
“The Police boss stressed that information sharing to tackle security challenges has become paramount considering the mounting challenges facing the country.”
