A new Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Lawal, has been posted to Ondo State to replace CP Wilfred Afolabi.
Lawal, who assumed duties on Monday, in Akure, the Ondo State capital, however, promised to re-strategize on the area’s needs to be addressed in order to provide adequate security across the 18 Local Government Areas of Ondo State.
The new CP, who also appreciated his predecessor, Wilfred Afolabi, for what he had been able to do in the command, said; “I have the confidence that with the management team around me and with the support of the good people of Ondo State, and of course, gentlemen of the press, they are going to summon everything. It’s not a speaking day, but however, I’ve taken the responsibility, it’s a challenge. I want to assure everybody that it will live up to expectations.
“So I’ll call on all the stakeholders, the military, civil defence, non-state actors to give all the support that they give my predecessor. The areas where we need to address, where we need to re-strategize, he (Afolabi) has briefed me, and we are going to work on those areas. I want to thank the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun for giving me this opportunity, for being rewarded for coming to this command, to take charge, and I want to assure him that I will not disappoint.”
The outgone CP, Afolabi, earlier in his remarks said; “we are all stakeholders in the Nigeria Police job. Why we joined the job, is to be part of creating a safe and secure environment for members of, or citizens of this country, and anywhere we find ourselves, we do it. So once again, I want to again thank members of the press.
“When I came in, I saw this problem of mutual trust and it dawned on me, that this is one of the areas I really need to work on. Mutual trust between the police and members of the public. And then we came up with this initiative of community safety partnership which has taken us even across the river. And whenever I go, I normally share my numbers with them.
“And as a result of this meeting, mutual trust that maybe had issues before improved. People felt more, they had more confidence in the police to share information with us. And I can tell you that 70 per cent of the information that assisted us in having most of the major breakthroughs we had came from members of the public.
“So we cannot end this meeting without me taking time to thank the good people of Ondo State for the cooperation they give to the Nigeria Police Force, along with other sister security agencies.
“They’ve been there for us, even the Amotekun, we’ve done operations together. The military, civil defence. So I want to thank everyone of them.
“I also want to appreciate the Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa for the support given to us by the state of Ondo State in helping us to check some of the security challenges we’ve had.”
