TheCable

Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, has approved the deployment of special forces to support the crime-fighting initiative of south-west governors.

Adamu made this known at the south-west geopolitical zone security summit in Ibadan, Oyo state, on Monday.

Governors of the south-west states, traditional rulers, and other stakeholders were among those in attendance.

Adamu said the forces, which would be commanded by a commissioner of police, will be supported with better equipment, technology and community police officers (CPOs).

He said the meeting involves partnering to develop strategies to address threats and building trust to undertake actions directed at mitigating them.

He said the security situation across the country has been stabilised but that there are isolated cases of kidnapping and armed robbery in the south-west, particularly, along Benin-Ore-Lagos highway and across Ondo state.

“We are launching the community policing strategy and are expanding and strengthening the Operation Puff Adder with other complementary strategies,” Adamu said.

“The reality is that the current concerted operations of the police and other security agencies across the country, particularly along the Niger-Kogi-FCT-Kaduna-Kastina and Zamfara areas have engendered a dispersal and relocation of some of the criminals to new localities including the south-west.

“Within this perspective and in relation to the southwest geo-political zone, we shall soon relaunch the ‘Safer Highway’ motorised patrol scheme as well as the ‘Safer City’ scheme.

“We have since purchased new fleet of patrol vans to be deployed across our highways and cities.

“This will also involve the deployment of cutting-edge CCTV technology for surveillance across the highways and vulnerable locations in our communities in the zone and other parts of the country. In addition, a special operation is underway across the southwest geo-political zone.

“The operation will specifically address the threat of kidnapping and armed robbery on the highways and other locations.

“While for operational reasons, I would not offer the details into the operation, I am in this summit with the commissioner of police who will command the special operation to complement the efforts of the police commissioners in the states within the zone.

“Furthermore, in order to give full effect to our community policing vision as a pathway towards bridging security gaps, we shall soon commence the implementation of the strategy in the south-west and other parts of the country.

“Hopefully, the breakdown of the community policing deployment plan will cover the recruitment of a total of forty thousand (40,000) community police officers (CPOs) across the country.”

Speaking, Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, said in the next few days the state will unveil a security road-map focused on improvement on security infrastructure.

In August, governors of the region obtained approval from the office of the national security adviser (NSA) to set up a regional security outfit.

The security outfit, which is reported to comprise local hunters and members of the OPC, has a team that will coordinate intelligence gathering.