I’m overhauling the Nigeria Police Force to overcome insecurity – President Buhari

President Buhari says the entire structure of the Nigerian Police Force is being overhauled, re-positioned and primed with modern technological gadgets to meet rising challenges across the nation.

The President said this when he received traditional rulers from the North led by His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III at the Presidential Villa today Friday, August 23rd.

In a statement released by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President said the ongoing reform of the police will include recruitment of more hands, cultivation of stronger local intelligence and networking with communities, traditional rulers and adequate training.

He noted that the return of the Ministry of Police Affairs was purposely to drive the new initiative of ensuring proper provision of security for lives and property, with proactive intelligence gathering to nip crimes in the bud before they escalate.

“I have decided to meet with Your Highnesses to assure you that government is determined to tackle and deal decisively with all security challenges facing us as a nation. This consultation therefore is to engage you, our royal fathers, so that, collectively, we can arrive at solutions to any and all security problems in the country.

“We must all play our part to finally address these security challenges, particularly traditional rulers, in your respective communities, where you feel the pulse of the people, being the closest to the populace at the grassroots level,’’ he said.

The President urged the traditional rulers to provide more support to security agencies with their versatile knowledge of communities and individuals.

“These policies and programmes include a robust revamping of police intelligence gathering capacity and the significant boosting of the numbers of security personnel in our local communities. This in specific terms will include recruiting more police officers and doing so whenever possible from their local government areas, where they would then be stationed in the best traditions of policing world-wide.

“Working with the State governments also, we intend to improve the equipping of the police force with advanced technology and equipment that can facilitate their work. To drive this, I recently created a full-fledged Ministry of Police Affairs.

“As I said during my meeting with the Traditional Rulers from the South-West, directives have been issued to the appropriate federal authorities to speedily approve licensing for States requesting the use of drones to monitor forests and other criminal hideouts,’’ he said

The President said CCTVs will be installed on highways and other strategic locations so that activities in some hidden places can be exposed, more effectively monitored and open to actionable interventions.