The Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Dr Solomon Arase, has said the Nigeria Police Force as a crime fighting security organisation and the Commission are going through challenging period of their existence.
Arase, a retired Inspector General of Police, noted that the challenges were as a result of the fact that crime across the world has become so scientific which requires scientific approach in dealing with the challenges.
This was as he said that oversight responsibilities have also become so vast and challenging that the Commission also required to be properly equipped and trained police to make a success of its assignment.
Arase, who stated these when he received in audience a delegation from the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria led by Dr Iliaysu Buba Gashinbaki at the Corporate Headquarters of the Commission in Jabi, Abuja, stressed that cyber bullying, criminal financial/banking attacks and other complex crimes are threatening various sectors of the nation’s fledgling democracy.
These were contained in a statement by Ikechukwu Ani, Head, Press and Public Relations of the PSC in which he quoted Dr. Arase as having said that both the police and the Commission would need to quickly step up in order to contain the emerging challenges, adding that the two government Agencies should also be properly equipped and trained to carry out its constitutional mandates successfully.
Arase also said that policing should be more visible at the local level especially at the Divisional centres where he noted have been abandoned thereby creating a lot of ungoverned spaces where non state actors have since taken over.
The PSC chairman said there is need for continuous recruitment of Police men to populate the communities and recover the ungoverned spaces and restore security of lives and properties across the nation.
Arase assured that the Commission will partner with the Institute to fight off the menace of the emerging financial and other crimes in the country, adding that he is an advocate of out-sourcing of skills that are lacking in a system.
He therefore promised that officials of the Institute would be used as Resource persons at Police Colleges so that the trainees are exposed to cyber and other complex crime prevention at that level.
Earlier, Dr. Gashinbaki, who was the Institute’s pioneer President and Chairman, Governing Council, commended the PSC Chairman for the good work he has brought to the Commission which he noted was no doubt a product of his impeccable record in the Nigeria Police Force where he rose to the highest office of the Inspector General.
Gashinbaki said the Institute is a unique one that is committed to supporting capacity building in crime investigation, adding that the Institute will be ready to work with the Commission in its mandate responsibilities of Police Recruitment, Promotion and Discipline and more especially investigation.
