* as crimes reduced in Northwest
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, on Thursday said President Muhammadu has charged security heads, including service chiefs to redouble their efforts in order to achieve ‘a zero crime society’ across the country.
Adamu said this in Abuja while briefing State House correspondents after a security meeting with President Buhari.
“We just finished security meeting and we have noticed within this quarter that the security situation in the country is stable; we make comparism of what has happened in the previous quarters and this quarter and we saw that there is tremendous decrease in kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery and even acts of cultism.
“And you can see the situation in Northwest, banditry has reduced tremendously, kidnapping also has gone down and we have statistics to back it.
“And having noticed that, we have been charged by Mr President to do more. He wants to see a mere zero crime society in the whole of the country. So, we have been charged to do more than what we are doing now in fact, in whole of the country,” Adamu said.
The IGP, who spoke on the series of peace initiatives especially the Tiv/Jukun crisis, said the federal government, which came up with the plan that brought the leaders and traditional rulers in the two concerned states together, had asked the security agencies to support the effort to ensure that the ongoing dialogue succeeded.
He said the president also charged them to increase security along the pipelines to make sure that crude oil theft stopped “completely”, stating that “the loss that the country is facing in that area is not to be tolerated.”
Adamu said positive results from the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme boosted the current move to pursue peace initiative with the bandits in the North Western part of the country.
“Part of strategy to deal with challenges in times of either security or war, there is peaceful negotiation too. So, it is not that you are a bandit and on the course of the banditry, you committed crime, you must be punished when there is peace initiative going on. If you refused to accept the peace initiative, of course, you have to face the consequences,” he added.
He said some of the identified camps of the kidnappers, especially along Abuja-Kaduna, Birnin Gwari-Niger axis had been destroyed, while the bandits also suffered casualties.
“So, that has also made them to surrender and some of them relocated and we are following those that have relocated to know the new location and also engage them,” he said.
Adamu said the meetings with the traditional rulers, the governors and the leadership of Miyetti Allah in the Northwest assisted in the reduction of crimes in the zone.
“They identified some of the challenges that are fuelling kidnapping and banditry. Those challenges were looked into to the extent that the bandits and kidnappers have decided to release their captives and surrendered their arms.
“For instance, in June, 2019, a total of one hundred and eleven (111) murder cases were reported nationally, while it reduced to ninety-nine (99) in July and eighty (80) in August.
“One hundred and eighty-three (183) armed robbery incidents were reported in June, with the rate dropping to one hundred and twenty-seven (127) in July and ninety-six (96) in August, 2019.
“Similar decline was noticed in the rate of kidnapping with one hundred and thirty-four (134) incidents recorded in June, which declined to one hundred and twelve (112) in July and further declined to eighty-three (83) in August,” the IGP said while addressing the worry over the Katsina State’s amnesty programme put in place for repentant bandits.
He said such negotiation which would bring peace was not a new phenomenon.
The IGP said the police was currently using Close Circuit Television (CCTV) and constant patrol to prevent car theft, burglary, and other criminal activities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He added that the police planned to expand its 20 CCTV camera points through which it had been monitoring security situation in the territory on daily basis.
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