I heartily rejoice with you and congratulate you on your promotion to the esteemed rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police. By your elevation, you have become members of the Force Management Team and I invite you to join me to build a Police service of our dreams.
You were chosen from the six geo political zones of the country to ensure balance and conform to the Federal character principle of fair representation in key positions and appointments in the country and its institutions.
It is my expectation that as you lead the key Departments of the Force, you will always uphold the virtues of service discipline as you provide quality leadership to the officers and men of the force as we all commit ourselves to their welfare.
We are reminded that we are a creation of the constitution and the law. Therefore, we must perform our core duties of crime prevention, detection, law and order as well as law enforcement functions within the confines of the law as provided for, by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, and the Police Act and Police Regulations, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria LFN, 2004. In the performance of these duties, we must carry out effective deployment of operational and tactical units, increase our crime detection abilities by utilising intelligence-led policing principles and develop the capacity of the officers and men. These will require the building of the necessary law enforcement infrastructure including the expansion of our forensic abilities to cover the six geopolitical zones as well as the establishment of databases in all the Divisional commands in the country.
Our focus must always be on countering organised crime such as Armed Robbery, Kidnapping, Murder, Corruption, Communal clashes, politically motivated crimes and the farmers/pastoralists crises. We cannot guarantee success in our mandate if we fail to build fruitful partnerships with the civilian population. In this regard, we must encourage the development and sustenance of community policing models and approaches that are responsive and meet the expectations of members of the public and the different levels of policing accountability.
My vision for the Police force is that of an organisation that is able and willing to perform its constitutional and statutory roles with integrity and accountability. We must therefore be both responsive and accountable to the country and the communities that we serve at all times.
A Police force devoid of integrity and perceived to be corrupt cannot earn the trust and confidence of the citizens and residents and therefore will be unable to deliver creditably on its mandate. This is why I believe that the Police should never play second fiddle in the fight against corruption in Nigeria under the leadership of the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR. I recall that in times past, the public looked up to the Police to fight corruption at all levels of public service in Nigeria. The deployment of specialist ‘X’ Squads to dismantle corruption networks and arrest corrupt individuals was always applauded by the generality of the public and attracted the confidence of citizens. My mission is to bring back this era and fight corruption at all levels of public service in Nigeria. This must begin within the Police as charity, they say, begins at home.
Let me conclude by reminding us all that the people and Government of Nigeria have high expectations of us and we must deliver a Police force that the People, Government and residents of our country will be proud of.
Once again, I congratulate you all as you rejoice with your families and friends. May the Almighty Allah bless us all as we steer the ship of law enforcement in our country to greater heights.