Police to Commence Broadcasting Service Across 36 States

By Paul Obi in Abuja

The Nigeria Police weekend said it would soon commence broadcasting service across the 36 states of the federation as a strategy for crime fighting.

The project which is under the Nigerian Police Broadcasting Service (NPBS) is expected to kick-start operation across the length and breath of the country in a couple of months. 

This was made known during the inauguration of the 16-man board of the NPBS in Abuja by the Inspector General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris. 

Speaking at the inauguration,  Idris said: “We will tackle security challenges such as terrorism, oil bunkering, ethnic tension, herders/farmers clashes through the use of our radio and television network.

“It will enable the police to tell its story and set the record straight by telling positive stories and correcting distorted information about the police.

“It will be used to build community relations and enhance positive relations with members of the public and also advance the community policing course of the NPF.”

The IG further explained that the NPBS was not established for money making, but for the advancement of the function of the Nigeria Police Force as stipulated in Section 4 of the Police Act.

Speaking, the MD and CEO of the Nigeria Police Broadcasting Service, Edirin Jerry Wesley, stated the absence of an information outfit contributed to the low successes recorded by the Police in tackling crime in the country.

Wesley said: “It is an established fact that no country can confront crimes headlong without credible means of factual and valid information dissemination and the absence of this over the years has been one basic defect in the fight against crime by the NPF. 

“It is therefore my pride that after painstaking efforts made since 2012, the management team of the IG Ibrahim Idris-led Nigeria Police Force and Skytick Group of Companies, are gathered here today for the inauguration of the board, for the take-off of the Nigeria Police Broadcasting Service, which will ensure the smooth take-off of a television, radio broadcast in indigenous languages, as well as other social means of communication and information dissemination.

“One of the basic truths about the inadequacies of the NPF is its inability to tell its own story and I think with the establishment of its mass media outfit,  the tendency to deny them right of showing and telling the road of its performance will be eliminated,” Wesley added.

The outfit consists of NPBS Television, NPBS Radio, NPBS Online and NPBS Emergency Command and Control Communication Centre.

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