Abuja – The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has said that the Nigeria Police Force is evolving operational strategies that will lead to restoration of civil authority in the North-East.
Arase said this on Thursday in Abuja at a roundtable on security stabilisation in the North-East organised in conjunction with the Bristish High Commission.
He said that the forum was aimed at providing a close interaction with strategic stakeholders in the security of the affected states.
“This will also serve as a veritable platform for the critical assessment of realities associated with plans to restore civil authority, re-integrate victims and begin the process of post-war reconstruction in the states.
“With the increasing success recorded by the military, the time has come for the police to play its lead role in restoring civil authority in the areas,”he said.
The Inspector-general also said that the force had mapped out areas in which civil authority would be re-established.
He said that the conflict had denied citizens in the affected areas the security which they constitutionally deserved.
Prof. Etunibi Alemika, a criminology and sociology lecturer at the University of Jos, said that security stabilisation measures in the North-East should be informed by the context and challenges of activities of insurgency.
He said that the process was a risky Programme in which human lives were often at stake and enormous finances required.
Alemika said that the programme also required the commitment of government to peaceful coexistence within the religious and ethnic groups and the communities.
In a remark, Rear Admiral Samuel Alade, Commandant, National Defence College, said that the college was committed to the quick return of IDPs to their communities.
He assured that it would also collaborate with other stakeholders to restore peace in the North-East.
The Minister of Interior, retired Lt.-General Abdulrahman Dambazau, said that it would be dangerous to allow the IDPs to return to their communities without making the areas safe.
He commended the professionalism of the military in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East, adding that the meeting was timely.
Also speaking, Sen. Abubakar Kyari ( APC-Borno), said that there was a need to de-radicalise the populace in the affected areas to stem the number of terrorists in the areas.
He urged the Federal Government to create IDPs camps in the various local government areas in the areas affected, adding that some communities in the hinterland were without security.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria Police Force had deployed Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, Mr Sotonye Wakama, to the North-East for need assessment before the planned deployment of policemen to the zone.
