New IGP not through with SARS, has other reforms ahead - Force PRO Mba

- Newly appointed force public relations officer, Frank Mba, says IGP Adamu plans more reforms in SARS and the entire police system

- Mba says one of the reforms is to bring the police close to the people and ensure the men and officers operate with human face

- The force spokseperson says the structure of SARS was actually wrong and that the IGP decided to follow the constitution

The newly appointed Nigeria Police Force (NPF) public relations officer, Frank Mba, in an interview early on Wednesday, January 23, spoke on the reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) recently carried out by Inspector General Mohammed Adamu in which the body is now answerable to the state commissioners of police. In the interview he granted Channels Television, Mba also delved into some of the missions of the new IGP and why the special election investigation team

Excerpts:

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) has transferred the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to the commissioners of police. Let's have your say about this development.

I want to tell Nigerians that we acknowledge that there are problems and challenges. Things have not gone the way they ought to go and we are determined to get things in their proper perspectives.

Having said that, I want to also say that the reforms that the IGP is set to carry out with SARS are not cosmetic. We are not just going to deal with our nomenclature issues, but they are going to be deep-rooted reforms that will make, not just the SARS, but the entire police force to be citizen-centred in the discharge of their responsibilities, a police that would be rooted in the culture of transparency and accountability.

What the IGP has done (with SARS) is to restore constitutionality and order. The issue of returning SARS command and control to the state commissioners is actually a constitutional matter. If you look at section 215 of the constitution, it provides that the command and control of the police will be under the inspector general. However, police components that are based in the states of the federation shall, subject to the command of the IGP, be under the exclusive command of the commissioners in the states. So, it is actually a misnomer, an aberration for you to have an important arm-bearing unit like SARS in the states and you strip the commissioners of any form of command, control and supervision on this very important operational unit. Some of those SARS offices are even domiciled in the headquarters of the state commands, yet the commissioner of police who is constitutionally recognised as the one that has the command and control, administratively and operationally, has no say in what they do. We are just lucky that no Nigerian charged us to court. So what IG Adamu has done is to restore order and constitutionality.

We are also trying to bring policing services closer to the people. Imagine a situation where a SARS operative somewhere in Bayelsa has misbehaved. A Nigerian whose right has been infringed upon, rushes down to the police headquarters in Yenagoa, goes to the commissioner of police, makes his complaint only for the commissioner to fold his hands helplessly and say something like: "Oh... I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do, I don't have command and control over them, they are not under me, please just rush to the force headquarters, Abuja so that you can make your report." It sounds like taking services so far from the people.

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So we are trying to bring police services closer to the people. If a SARS operative misbehaves for example, you can simply walk down to the office of the commissioner in charge of the state, make your case and the commissioner is expected to take appropriate disciplinary action.

We intend to restore what we call unity of the command and control. A commissioner of police cannot be in charge of a state, in charge of the state CID, is in charge of the area commands and yet, there is a unit there that he cannot control. That affects the effective discharge of the responsibilities of, not just the commissioner of police, but of the entire command. In policing and in our investigation, there are moments, for example, when you need to consolidate cases that are going on in your command. Let's assume you are the commissioner of police in Lagos. Then a particular case is going on in Yaba, then you notice that a strand of it is going on in Apapa and a component of that case is also going on in Ikeja, because that is the way criminals operate and the victims of these crimes report to the different police divisions. Probably, a strand of it is being handled by the SARS office in the state. The commissioner of police should be able to exercise his discretion in directing any unit handling any of the cases to consolidate that case and direct the other units to transfer those cases to the particular unit best positioned to actually deliver.

There's been a clamour for state policing and decentralisation. Are we considering this transfer of SARS to the state commands as a precursor to a decentralised police force?

I don't want to align myself absolutely with what you have just said. However, what we are trying to do, I believe, is in line with the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians. Nigerians have always called for the decentralisation of power, they have always called for the devolution of power. Most importantly, what we are doing is also in tandem with the principles of democratic and community policing. The people you are policing ought to be close to the policing institutions. They ought to have a say in your policing strategy. We don't want a situation the SARS office that is domiciled in Akure that is under the absolute control of the commissioner of police (has a head) sitting somewhere in the force headquarters. No, that is not proper. I want to tell Nigerians that what the Inspector General of police has just done is just a tip of the iceberg. It is just a micro out of the macro tons of reforms he wants to carry out. We are not going to work this work alone, we are going to work with the presidency, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and others.

READ ALSO: Breaking: IGP appoints Frank Mba as new police PRO

The IGP has just created the special election investigation team be doing. What will the team be doing?

The special election investigation team is just an ad-hoc investigation team that has just been set up. It is going to have a very narrow mandate. It is going to focus exclusively on electoral offences, the ones that we anticipate may be committed in the run up to the elections, during the elections and post-election. As soon as it is done with that, the team will be disbanded. It is just an ad-hoc team. The reason is to ensure effectiveness in the investigation, handling, processing of offences that might be committed during the elections. We do hope that Nigerians will not commit any offences during the elections, but we need to plan ahead, be strategic, be forward thinking and forward looking. This team will be domiciled under the control of the deputy inspector general of police in charge of intelligence. This team will also work directly or in partnership with the legal department of INEC. It is just created to ensure effectiveness and that electoral offences are handled in expedient manner.

During the staggered elections in Osun and Ekiti, we know that a number of policemen were deployed. How ready are the police for the general elections?

Let me use this opportunity to assure Nigerians that we are prepared to give the best ever security arrangement for the general elections in the country. We will guarantee a level playing field for all political actors. We will ensure that politicians and candidates for the elections, the electorate and the observers and monitors are given a free and enabling environment to discharge their respective constitutional rights as well as functions.

I also quickly want to let you know that we will not be doing this alone. There are other sister security agencies that would be joining us in the policing and monitoring of the electoral duties. We expect our colleagues from the national civil defence, the immigration, customs and the federal road safety corps to be parts and parcels of this policing. Nigerians have nothing to fear, we are here to ensure we safeguard lives and properties, and ensure the right things are done. We will remain professionals and provide excellent security services. It is our responsibility to protect the innocent, to protect the weak against the oppressions of the strong, it is our responsibility to protect the peaceful against the violence and disorderliness of law breakers. It is our responsibility to guarantee at all times the constitutional rights of Nigerians. I just appeal to Nigerians to give us a chance.

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Is the special election investigation team going to be responsible for electoral matters when such get to the tribunals?

I don't want to link them up with the election tribunals. If you cast your mind back to most of the cases that have come to the election tribunals in the past, they are just politicians coming up against other politicians and joining INEC and other relevant bodies to the suit. The police certainly will not be involved in such kinds of cases. Our domain will be dealing exclusively on matters concerning infractions of the law. If you destroy election materials for example or you snatch ballot boxes or you engage in vote buying or you engage in any other activity that infringes on the criminal aspect of the law, that falls within the ambit of our responsibilities and it is those areas.

Legit.ng had reported earlier that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) recently assured Nigerians of its readiness to tackle any security threat during and after the coming general election in the country.

Frank Mba, in an interview with Daily Sun, said the police had taken security measures to neutralise all possible threats to the peaceful conduct of the elections.

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2019 Election: New IGP Speaks Tough | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng