*IG says academy will be transformed into center of excellence
Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja
Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Dingyadi, yesterday inaugurated the 16-man Governing Board of Police Academy (POLAC) Wudil, Kano State.
A statement issued by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Police Affairs, Bolaji Kazeem, said the inuaguration reaffirmed President Muhammadu Buhari’s sincere commitment to bequeath a reformed, professionalised, highly motivated, and knowledge-based police force with a view to institutionalising proactive policing in Nigeria.
The governing board which consists of stakeholders from the police ecosystem and academia was inaugurated at the Ministry of Police Affairs, Headquarters in Abuja.
The minister stated that the overall objectives of the police academy was to encourage the advancement of learning and to avail members of the Nigeria Police the opportunity of acquiring a higher and liberal education without distinction of race, creed, sex or political conviction, or religious persuasion.
He added that the institution provides courses of instruction and other facilities for the pursuit of teaching and learning in all the facilities and campuses of the academy and “nurtures, equips, and produces globally competitive police officers with the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes suitable for leadership, scholarship, policing, and community service”.
He said, “POLAC encourages and promotes academic excellence, conducts research in relevant fields of learning and human endeavor, aligns its activities to the security, social, cultural, and economic needs of the people of Nigeria as well as prepares cadets through well-articulated theory and practice for careers of service and achievements”.
Dingyadi recalled that the academy took off simultaneously in 1988 at two temporary campuses; the Police Training School Challawa, Kano where Cadet Inspectors were trained and the Police College Kaduna, where cadet ASPs were trained.
He said the two campuses were merged and relocated to its permanent site in Wudil, Kano, after it was formally commissioned on April 2, 1996.
“However, the institution was upgraded to a degree-awarding institution in September 2012”, he said.
The minister pointed out that the approval of the governing board of the Nigeria Police Academy President Muhammadu Buhari sought to fully operationalise the provisions of the Police Academy (Establishment) Act 2021 earlier signed into law by Mr. President on April 7, 2022.
He said “the Police Academy Governing Board known as the Nigeria Police Academy Council among others, has the statutory responsibility to exercise control and supervise the policy, finances, and property of the Academy. “Promote and discipline staff of the academy that are not police officers on the advice of the appropriate committees and approve the academic and police programs of the academy.
Responding on behalf of the board members, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, pledged the commitment of the board to transform POLAC into a center of excellence.
“The academy had since its establishment, grown from strength to strength and would continue to produce fine police officers in various fields of study.
“We are proud of this academy which is one of its kind in the world and we believe it will be one university that no parent would want to miss for his child to be”, he said.
