The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), on Tuesday deployed its K9 Police Dog units to bolster security at railway stations across the country.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, while launching the deployment at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, said the initiative is within the context of Operation Puff Adder.
He said it is planned to complement the existing security measures emplaced for the security and safety of passengers and critical infrastructure of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) across the country.
Adamu said the deployment of special breed and exceptionally-trained police dogs for security duties is as old as human civilization.
He added that their utilization in combating crimes and sundry internal security threats in the 21st century cannot be over emphasized.
He said, “Indeed, K9 is known to possess extraordinary capacity for detection of Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs), narcotics and other illicit drugs, firearms and other prohibited items which criminals usually, engage for the perfection of their criminal activities.”
He said, “The deployment of Police dogs is therefore meant for detection or prevention of crimes along the railway corridors.”
“Their brief shall be for patrols, surveillance, detection and apprehension of felons in and around railway facilities,” he added.
“By this event today, our plan is to maximize our unique K9 strength to complement other sections that have been deployed as part of the broad policing architecture which we recently emplaced towards addressing our internal security challenges,” he stated.
He recalled that already about one thousand additional police personnel were deployed to the Nigeria Police Railway Command.
