ActionAid Nigeria has challenged the Nigeria Police Force to build confidence in the minds of the citizenry through community policing to help address issues of crimes and criminality in the country.
Anicetus Atakpu, Resilience Programmes Coordinator for ActionAid Nigeria, made the call at a two-day training for Police Officers drawn from all divisions of the Force in Kogi State at Okene.
Titled ‘Strengthening Community Policing/Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC)’, Atakpu said the project was being executed under the System and Structural Strengthening Approach Against Radicalization To Violent Extremism (SARVE II) Project of ActionAid.
He said the training was organised by ActionAid Nigeria in collaboration with his local rights partner in Kogi, Participation Initiative For Behavioural Change In Development (PIBCID), the state command of the Nigeria Police and funded by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF).
Atakpu said the training was part of the capacity building initiative and strengthening of referral pathways from community level to the state towards ending radicalisation and violent extremism.
He added that the programme was meant to broaden the scope of police officers and enhance their understanding of community policing and support for established Community Action and Response Team (CART) in detecting and addressing early warning signs of conflict before they escalate.
He urged the Police Force to build on the trust deficit that was existing between the law enforcement agency and the people saying, “Just last week the governor of Kogi State inaugurated the committee on community policing which will be replicated at the local government and ward levels.
“With that inauguration there is need for us to bring on board police officers that will be ambassadors of police community policing in their different divisions,” he said.
Williams Aya (DSP), Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kogi State Command, in his paper titled, ‘Introduction To The Concept of Community Policing’, said community policing would further help to reduce crime and criminality in the society.
Aya said that Community Policing was founded on the principle that in a democratic society, the police were entrusted by their fellow citizens to protect and enforce the peoples’ fundamental rights to liberty, equality and justice under the law.
Halima Sadiq, Executive Director, PIBCID, said effective community policing would also help check issues of violence against women, rampant cases rape, child molestation, other forms of abuse and crimes against women.
