IG: Public distrust our major challenge
By Udora Orizu
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila yesterday said the Nigeria Police cannot be effective when the mechanisms for accountability and discipline are too weak to identify, remove and prosecute rogue officers, insisting that the House will carry out a comprehensive reform of the Nigeria Police from recruitment to training and welfare of officers.
This is coming as the Inspector General of Police (IG) Mohammed Adamu, has lamented that the major problem of the police is the lack of confidence between policemen and members of the public
The speaker stated this while addressing stakeholders at the 9th House Legislative Agenda Public Policy Dialogue Series with the theme: “Policing and Human Rights in Nigeria”.
The event came on heels of a new police reform Bill, which was unveiled before the stakeholders and will be laid before the House soon.
In the synopsis of the new Bill, Sections 6(1)(I) and 7(c) gave Nigerians power to make complaints against erring police officers.
Gbajabiamila said that the country does not have an effective system of policing, adding that the relationships between communities and the police are defined by fear and mistrust.
He opined that effective policing is only possible when the policing institutions are grounded in the rule of law.
The Speaker while calling on all well-meaning Nigerians to make their inputs toward the enactment of the Police Service Commission (Reform) Bill, 2020, said the present administration must be commended as they inherited a flawed policing system, and is now taking giant steps to reform the system through the recently enacted Police Reform Act.
Gbajabiamila said, ‘’We cannot have an effective policing system when the citizens do not have faith that the Police will treat them fairly every time, no matter the circumstance. We will have succeeded in building modern and effective Police when service in the Nigeria Police Force consistently attracts the best and brightest in our country without objection.
