The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase has expressed joy in the restoration of the constitutional mandate of the police, bordering on the internal security which the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan removed from them and handed it over to the military personnel.
He is particularly happy that President Muhammadu Buhari had recently ordered that military checkpoints in most parts of the country should immediately be removed to pave way for the police to properly take over, according to the constitutional mandate of internal security given to the Nigeria Police Force.
Addressing top police officers from the rank of Commissioners of Police in Abuja today, the Inspector General allayed the fear by some Nigerians over the withdrawal of the military from checkpoints, giving assurance that the spaces vacated by the military will be safe.
Assuring that there is no need for fear, Arase said that the police management has concluded arrangements on the dress code for the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the police.
“The withdrawal of the military should not create any fear in the minds of Nigerians, we have done it before and we are going to do it again. We have about 555 vehicles on the highway nationwide, each state has about 15 vehicles to man the safer highway, besides that, prior to this time, most of the states had about 20 vehicles each. They are not sufficient but what we have now, we will make do to ensure that we are able to secure the highway space.
“Constitutionally, other security agents have the constitutional responsibility to also complement the efforts of the NPF, asking us to take over the responsibility of the roadblocks which originally was supposed to be our turf, will not create any vacuum.
“Nigerians, I believe, will not want to listen to excuses from us and we have opportunity now to take over our mandate of securing the internal security space.” [myad]
