The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on Thursday, reeled out statistics to back his claims of crimes reduction across the country, which he attributed to the result of dialogues with bandits
The IGP while briefing State House Correspondents after the Security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari,stated that crime rates have reduced within this current quarter, as a result of the dialogues
“ We have noticed 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.
The IGP who noted that kinetic action only cannot reduce crime rates, stated that government embarked on peace initiative and the dialogues, as part of efforts to tackle insecurity
“If you remember we went to the Northwestern zone of this country, we sat down with the traditional rulers and all the governors and the leadership of Miyetti Allah and they identified some of the challenges that are fuelling kidnapping and banditry”
The IGP revealed that the situation was noticed in the Northwest, where banditry and kidnapping reduced tremendously, adding that “ kidnapping also has gone down and we have statistics to back it.
“Those challenges were looked into, to the extent that the bandits and kidnappers have decided to release their captives and surrendered their arms, that has contributed and also those that have refused to accept the peace initiative, we have been able to identify their camps especially Abuja Kaduna road and along Birnin Gwari, in Niger axis and we went to the camps of these kidnappers and we dislodged some of the camps.
“In fact in the security briefing we gave specific numbers of the camps that we have destroyed and the casualties the bandits recorded as a result of that. 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.
Mohammed stressed that negotiation and dialogue can bring peace, adding that “even in terms of war, you go into dialogue so as to achieve certain level of peace, that is what I am trying to say. So if dialogue can bring peace, why do you have to use force, that is what I am just trying to say”
The IGP noted that as a result of the combined actions, crimes declined in June, 2019, where 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.
Adamu said the President has charged them to do more, to reduce crime rates to “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.
“Recently, there have been series of peace initiatives especially the Tiv/Jukun crisis, the federal government came up with initiatives by bringing the leadership of the two states and their traditional rulers and we have been asked to support that initiative and see to it that dialogue succeeds and that there is peace between the Jukun and Tivs.
“We have also been charged to increase security along the pipelines to make sure that crude oil theft is stopped completely because the loss that the country is facing in that area is not tolerated.
So we have been changed to increase our security activities in that direction to make sure that crude oil theft is stopped completely.
He disclosed that government has increased security surveillance within the Federal Capital Territory FCT, adding that “we have about 20 different points where we monitor on daily basis through CCTV Cameras within FCT and we are expanding it to cover the remaining areas.
So one of the strategies to stop all this type of crime whether it is car theft or burglary or anything that has to do with theft in the city is the use of CCTV and constant patrol for prevention.”
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
