Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 6, Jonathan Johnson, on Wednesday told Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) would ensure a better policing system for the state.
To ensure this, Johnson told the governor that he had directed the Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, to put an end to security breach in the South-South state.
The AIG spoke when he led a delegation of senior police officers in the zone on a courtesy visit to Amaechi at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
He promised to correct the mistakes made by the officers and men in the Rivers State Police Command.
The AIG said: “We will take note of all these mistakes and we will correct them, I am assuring you, we will correct them. If there are lapses noticed, let us know so that we can make amends. And I also want to thank you (Amaechi) for all you have done for us and the others that you are going to do. We shall continue to appreciate because you know requests from the police will never stop coming.
“Every human being that has served or is going to serve the Force sometimes is susceptible to some errors here and there and when that comes to the forefront, it is incumbent on that very particular person to say we shall amend. I know when these issues of withdrawal of security from some staff officers of yours came, there were agitations here and there.”
He said he had also instructed Mbu (who was with him during the visit) to replace the police orderlies from the Anti-Terrorism Squad withdrawn from some Rivers State Government top officials with policemen from the Special Protection Unit.
He commended Amaechi for showing understanding.
“We have always been at the wrong side of history because of one thing or the other but you (Amaechi) show understanding in our mistakes, you show understanding in our service and that is why you’ve provided all these things. We remain grateful to you on behalf of the Inspector General of Police. We say a big thank you”, the police boss said.
The AIG promised to use trained policemen from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to fight kidnapping and other vices in Rivers State.
Responding, Amaechi thanked the AIG and his delegation for their visit, but appealed to the Police not to play politics with the security of lives and property of the people of the state.
“I like to welcome you AIG. We should not play politics with security. The only responsibility enshrined in the Constitution for both the President and governors is that we swear on oath that we will protect lives and properties and we are beginning to have that challenge in Rivers State and I will say to you to kindly please convey to the Police Command that we are beginning to have security challenges in Rivers State and we should not forget that you may play politics with every other thing but one place you don’t play politics with is the security of lives of our people who elected us to offices and it will not be in the interest of Rivers people if we go back to the era of 2005, 2006 and early 2007”.
