The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba on Tuesday declared that the Nigeria Police is working to deepen engagement of the concept of Community Partnership, Technology-driven policing, and intelligence-based model in mitigating Nigeria’s current internal security challenges.
Baba, who spoke at the 3-day Gombe State Security and Peace Summit, said that also said that because crime is dynamic, addressing it on a sustainable basis requires innovative approaches and the buy-in of all components of the society.
According to him, “This policing strategy seeks to address security challenges through an active citizens engagement in the identification, analysis, and mitigation of threats and to actualize it, the communities and strategic stakeholders have critical roles to play.”
The IGP added that “against this backdrop, the Nigeria Police Force under my leadership, considers it imperative that community leaders, community-based associations, local community groups and all citizens are actively engaged towards feeling their pulse, evolving a common synergy and presenting a common front to contain security challenges that are threatening our communal peace, safety, and security.”
He stressed that community engagements, like the Security and Peace Summit by the Gombe State Government falls perfectly within the framework of this policing vision.
“To this extent, the Nigeria Police Force conveys its full and wholehearted support to the Government of Gombe State, under the leadership of His Excellency Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya for the vision in convening this strategic Summit”, he added.
He however observed that, “Although Gombe State is one of the States in the Federation with the least incidences of violent crimes, the dynamic nature of crime makes it imperative that we continue to partner in evolving strategies that will constantly place us above the criminal elements. This is the only pathway towards maintaining the stable internal security order in Gombe State”.
Usman Alkali said that, “is my expectation that during this 3-day Summit, all issues of security importance will be extensively discussed and effective strategies to address them identified” .
He added that, “In exploring the various themes of the summit, I would like to call on the resource persons and participants to pay utmost attention to matters such as building trust between communities and the police, the role of citizens in providing actionable criminal information, and strategies for strengthening partnerships among various security agencies and the communities we serve”.
The 3-day Security and Peace Summit which was organized under the theme – ‘Mitigating Contemporary Security Challenges for Sustainable Development in Gombe State’ brought together, respected royal fathers, community leaders, security agencies and all other strategic stakeholders and resource persons to brainstorm on measures and strategies required to combat contemporary security challenges affecting Gombe state and the country.