Insecurity can’t deter us from holding election anywhere ― FG

The Federal Government on Thursday reassured that despite the widespread Insecurity around the country it would not be deterred from conducting next year’s general elections all over the nation.

The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, stated this while appearing on the 15th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Scorecard media briefing series in Abuja.

He said not only would the government ensure the exercise takes place in every part of the country, it would also be free, fair, and credible.

Asked how the government could cope in the conduct of the polls with the widespread insecurity, which he had graphically shown in his presentation, he said: “Yes. I’ve said it before, I want to repeat it now. This election is going to be conducted in all parts of the country and we want to assure Nigerians that it’s going to be hitch-free, it’s going to be fair and it’s going to be credible.

“What you see out there by these coward criminals will not deter us from conducting this election.”

Dingyadi spoke on his ministry’s efforts between August 2019 to 2022 to reposition the Nigeria Police Force to be “efficient, well-motivated, well equipped, people-friendly and improve its capacity to face modern-day security challenges.”

He said the ministry has ensured the full implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) by all the agencies it supervises.

The Minister said about 25,000 constables were trained in Police colleges across the country with many deployed to their local government of origin to aid in intelligence-gathering techniques and law enforcement.

Similarly, he said the ministry supervised the recruitment of 30,000 police personnel being the third tranche of the 40,000 additional police constables approved by President Buhari to shore up the manpower of the Force.

According to him, the recruitment of the final 10,000 would soon be done by the relevant police stakeholders.

He stated that with the signing into law by the president of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Bill, the reform of the force effectively took off, saying that the fund has led to the successful purchase of operational vehicles, arms, and ammunition, bulletproof vests, and helmets for Police operations.

Giving more highlights of achievements under the Trust Fund, he spoke of an upgrade of facilities in some police training institutions at the cost of N660 million, procurement and installation of intelligence equipment at Force Headquarters Abuja, Force Headquarters Annex Lagos, Zone 1 Headquarters Kano and Zone 2 Headquarters Lagos at the cost of N1.1 billion, construction and provision of hospitals/health centers for police personnel at the cost of N1,37 billion, and establishment of Nigeria Police Cyber Crime Control Centre in Abuja at the cost of N841million.”

Others are the rehabilitation of Police Detective College Enugu at the cost of N1.2 Billion (70% completed), construction and equipping of FCT Command Abuja at the cost of N1.3 billion, and rehabilitation of Police Stations and Barracks in several parts of the country such as Kebbi, Edo, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau, Abia, Bayelsa, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Ogun, Lagos, FCT, at the total cost of N5 billion.”

Dingyadi remarked that the ministry’s intelligence-led policing paradigm has resulted in the deployment of operational, intelligence, and ICT-based apparatus to stem the tide of crimes and criminalities in Nigeria.

Some of these he said include the maximization of the Force Intelligence Bureau Intelligence Response Team (FIB- IRT) and the Special Tactical Squad (FIB- STS) and the ‘NPF Rescue Me,’ an Application that can be downloaded from the play store, is available on both android and ios, for emergency response at the tap of a button.

Similarly, he added, NPF Crime and Incident Database Centre have also been commissioned, to handle the registration of valuable items, aiding recovery in the event of loss and providing a platform to confirm an item’s ownership.

Furthermore, according to him, the Interpol Cybercrime Reporting platform at incb.npf.gov.ng is available 24/7 for the reportage of cybercrime-related complaints including all offenses provided for by the Cybercrime Act, 2015, including the production and distribution of child pornography.

He said that the Interpol cybercrime unit is also empowered to mitigate possible cyber attacks like the 2019 attack on INEC cyber facilities.

“This unwholesome affront was mitigated by the NPF Interpol cyber unit. This Unit has become very important following the sophistication of the cyber domain, being an invisible domain where an attack can be launched on critical national infrastructure such as financial institutions, power, transportation, energy, gas, etc,” the Minister stated.

Responding to a question on police officers grumbling over their unpaid six months’ salary arrears, Dingyadi noted that the outstanding amounts will soon be paid.

He said: “Yes, we are aware of this and we are making efforts to ensure that we pay this salary as soon as possible. Even yesterday, I took up this matter with the Minister of Finance and she has assured me that she is aware that this money is there and they are going to pay it.

“I have given a directive for Police Force to follow up on this matter to ensure that these arrears are being paid.”

He explained that the six months arrears being owed by the police are not salary itself but arrears of salary increment, saying: “Salary has been ongoing. So, what we did is just to increase and introduce some of these allowances. It is the arrears of these increases and allowances that are outstanding, just six months.

“From the time we started, it has been active, it has been on and what we are now trying to do is to get the arrears paid to the police officers concerned.

“I want to assure you that we are working to pay these arrears as and when due.”

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[Update] 2023: Insecurity can’t deter us from holding election anywhere ― FG​​