The Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Nigeria, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar,  has emphasised the need for the communities in Nigeria to work together with the police force in ensuring security of lives and property.

In an event held in Asaba, Delta State’s capital, to look at the performance of the IGP since his appointment in 2012, Mr. Abubakar stressed that policing was about the people and not about the police.

The IGP said that the event was held to enable Nigerians appraise the leadership of the Police Force.

“Leadership is about accountability,” he said.

Mr. Abubakar, since his appointment, has instituted series of reforms in the force, a development that has been described as a huge step in ensuring sanity in the police force.

The reforms have yielded an improved welfare and better development of the police intelligence unit through the establishment of a training institute in Enugu State.

To ensure that these reforms yield the expected results, the IG emphasised the need for training, saying that without training, a police officer cannot be a professional.

The Nigerian government is equipping the police to enable them tackle the challenges of insecurity.

“About 955 officers have been trained since the establishment of the training school in Enugu in February 2013.

“More than 200 vehicles for anti-crime patrol and 13 brand new helicopters with surveillance equipment have been given to the police to aid officers to do operational responsibility as supposed,” he said.

The IGP stated that the reforms were yielding positive results, as kidnapping and armed robbery have been reduced to the barest minimum.

“We successfully provided security for voters to vote in different elections held in some states of recent.

“Officers and men are focused, willing and ready to do what is expected of them,” he pledged.

He insisted that Nigeria was ‘not ripe for state police’ and called on Nigerians to continue to support the police to enable them discharge their duties to the best of their ability.

“Looking at our culture and political issues I still stand to the fact that it is a time thing,” he insisted.

The governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, scored the police IG high, saying that the police had been successful in handling criminal issues in the state.

He attributed the development to the police-community collaboration and called for improved training of officers to empower them for better intelligence gathering.

“There should be collaboration with other security agencies,” he also stressed..

A book entitled ‘The Police. Public Safety and Internal Security’ written by Mr. Abubakar was also unveiled at the event.

The 135-page book looks at the role of the police in managing public safety and brings to the fore, the need to look at the state of the police, public safety and the important issue of internal security.