Police promises to interface with community members to maintain Social Order as Community Policing takes-off in Lagos

Abiodun OBA

The Nigeria Police shall interface with members of the community toward the maintenance of social order in the country.

The Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Education and Training at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, Mr. Femi Folawiyo, representing the IGP, in continuation of the tour of South West Geo-political zone of the country to inaugurate Community Policing Advisory/State Committees stated this yesterday at Alausa, Ikeja in Lagos.

AIG Folawiyo with Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State on the matter of Community Policing for the South West

Those of Ekiti and Osun states had earlier been inaugurated.

AIG Folawiyo speaking at the South-West Community policing meet

Folawiyo said the nation had reached a point where the police must interface with community members in maintaining social order.

“It is a bottom-up approach that shift focus on reactive law enforcement to proactive problem solving,” he said.

The AIG praised the Governor Sanwo-Olu for being proactive and working tirelessly in supporting security architecture in the state in particular and the nation in general.

Folawiyo called on members of the committees to work conscientiously towards making the state a safe place for members of the community.

He urged the states to use community policing to keep the peace, to enhance security awareness, to gather intelligence, to fight crime, to settle dispute and get to bottom of policing.

“Let us use community policing to keep the peace, to promote safety, to enhance security awareness, to gather intelligence, to fight crime, to settle dispute and get to the bottom of policing.

“State community is under a system, Amotekun belongs to the system not the system belonging to Amotekun. Community policing is all-encompassing. All stakeholders in the security system will be part of community policing,” the AIG enlightened.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu pointed out that the inauguration marked a turning point in the Government’s deliberate effort to re-strategize and rethink the security architecture using Community Policing Initiative as proposed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Muhammed Abubakar Adamu.

South-West governor at the community policing meeting

Sanwo-Olu said, the security initiative, is long overdue, and that the reform is being implemented with the objective to address inadequacies of the current policing model, which, he said, had failed to engage members of local communities and neighbourhoods in knowledge sharing and intelligence gathering that could help in nipping crimes in the bud.

SCPAC, which is co-chaired by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, and chairman of Council of Obas and Chiefs in Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, will be the custodian of the initiative and it is to maintain the highest level of oversight on community policing in the State.

SPAC, on the other hand, will be responsible for managing and coordinating the State-level operations of the community policing programme, and it will, among other functions, help identify security threats in communities and work with the police and the Community Police Officers (CPOs) in evolving appropriate strategies for addressing them.

Governor Gboyega Oyetola of osun state and AIG Folawiyo at the Inuaguartion of community policing in the South-West

The Governor also used the occasion to re-assure all security formations in the State of his administration’s commitment to support their activities by providing equipment and resources through the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) and other interventions.

Other members of SCPAC include Heads of security agencies in the State, representative of Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), Apostle Kehinde Sowemimo, representative of the Lagos Muslim Community, Sheikh Sulaiman Abou-Nolla, representative of the Lagos chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Apostle Alexander Bamgbola, representatives of three senatorial districts in Lagos.

Amotekun and Community Policing: Osun State governor, Ooni of Ife others leaving venue of the meeting

Membership of SPAC includes a representative of the Commissioner of Police, DCP Etim Oqua Efiom; representative of the traditional institution, Oba Momodu Ashafa; Muslim community, Bashorun Sikiru Alabi; CAN representative, Bishop Stephen Adegbite; PCRC representative, Prince Yemi Adenowo; representative of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Mrs. Blessing Abiri; representative of the Lagos chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Mr. Lukman Aminu; representative of people living with disabilities, Hon. Israel Akiode, representative of the Nigeria Bar Association, Prince Dele Oloke, and representative of the Lagos chapter of National Council of Women Societies, Alhaja Sikirat Agoro.