Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
Special Constables under the Community Policing scheme in Edo State, who graduated over the weekend, will be given life insurance policies, Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said.
The governor made the disclosure at the graduating ceremony of 877 Special Constables under the community policing project of the Nigeria Police Force in the state at the weekend, adding that insecurity was the first challenge confronting his administration as he took the oath of office for a second term on November 12.
He noted that the 877 Special Constables were trained at the Police Training School, Ogida, Benin City to strengthen the Edo State Police Command in the area of community policing.
“The Special Constables are part of the first batch of the 2,000 constables to be trained for community policing in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force in Edo State.
“The idea of community policing is not new to us as an administration. This concept which has led to the recruitment, training and subsequent graduation of the special constables was one of the ideas I discussed with the present Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, when he served as the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police Zone 5 in Benin City, several years ago.”
Urging the Special Constables to see themselves as people called to serve their various communities in the area of local policing, Obaseki noted that the passing out parade of the first batch of 877 personnel would legitimise the structure that started in the state.
“You have been recruited to take policing activities in your communities. You will join the Edo State Government to work for the Edo people. We are not bosses but here to serve Edo people”, he told the graduands.
Obaseki assured that his administration would invest more on security in collaborating with the federal government, promising that the administration would also collaborate with the Nigeria Police Force on the facilities at the Police Training School.
“These facilities will become busy for us as we will use it to train all the cadres that will participate in all our security architecture. We will collaborate with the Nigeria Police Force in refurbishing the facilities and commit more resources to training more security personnel”, he assured.
“The state government is interested in your affairs and development. A way to show this is to provide free health insurance to all of you. We will also provide life insurance for each and every one of you”, he further promised.
“Working with the Division, we would ensure the intelligence gathered by you, collaborating with the Police, will be effectively used to check crime in the state. You are graduating today into a society that is challenged, security wise. Your first assignment is to join us and other federal security agencies to arrest all the inmates that broke out from our Correctional Center. We would give all the support for all of them to be arrested and returned to prison,” he added.
The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, who was represented by the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo, commended Obaseki for adopting the concept of community policing to protect lives and property in the state.
He said, “As you go out today into the society, you are expected to work with the local police authority and police your area of responsibility as indigenes of your respective communities where you shall be deployed.”
Adamu charged the special constables to make good use of their training and respect the fundamental right of the citizens.
Earlier, the Commandant of the Police Training School, Sabongida-Ora, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Jonathan Modi, said the 877 graduands received training on basic principles and core values of community policing which were vital tenets in democratic policing.
