TheCable

The Borno state command of the Nigeria police force says it will soon take over the daily running of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in the state.

Damian Chukwu, commissioner of police in the state, told NAN on Sunday said that 100 female policemen had been deployed to camps, while male officers were also providing cover.

He said steps were being taken to ensure the protection of IDPs following allegation of abuse of women by camp officials.

The Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation, had alleged mass abuse of girls and women by camp officials in its latest report.

He said he had also constituted a high powered committee to oversee the running of the camps.

“I have constituted a committee, led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), with Divisional Police Officers (DPO) and other senior officers, to take over the daily running of the camps,” he said.

“It is interesting to say that most members of the committee are females.

“I have also mobilised over 100 women police from different divisions, including mobile police women, to handle day-to-day interaction in the camps.

“The male officers will be limited to handling of the territorial coverage and patrol with in the camps.”

He said that the objective was to further secure the camps and give confidence to the thousands of women in the IDP camps.

“The deployment of women police is also to dig out true happenings in the camps regarding the allegation,” he said.

“We feel that the victims might not want to talk freely to men, but they will be encouraged to open up to women policemen if the allegation is true.”

He said prior to the alarm raised by the human rights organisation, the police had not received any complaint on the alleged abuse.

“We have not received any complaint on any case of human rights abuse in the camps, so the whole thing appear strange to me; in each of the camps, we have many police outpost,” he said.

“In Bakassi camp for instance, we have five police units because every local government area in the IDP camp has its DPO and other policemen, with all the complement of law enforcement.

He expressed the belief that the police investigation would “unravel the truth of the matter once and for all”.