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RINGIM Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, took over the reins at the Force Headquarters yesterday, promising a break from the past. His predecessor Hafiz Ringim rated himself high, saying he gave the country his very best. Abubakar was decorated with his rank.
Ringim, who handed over to Abubakar, denied being sacked by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Abubakar said he was not new to the emerging security challenges and the difficulties facing the Police in the fight against terrorism and other related problems.
Abubakar said: “I am just taking over. I want to be fully briefed about the challenges and difficulties facing the Police today.
“As you know, I am not a new comer to the challenges and I cannot run away from the fact that I know some of the challenges. But I do know the fact that we have a very challenging and uphill task ahead.
“However, I want to assure Nigerians that this administration will be different from past administrations because officers and men of the Police will belong to the same family.
“We shall focus on areas of interest which we know that the police are lacking; training and retraining programme, welfare scheme and the challenges of fighting crime in this country. We shall go to every nook and cranny of this country as what is expected of the police in respect of fighting crime and criminality.
“This administration will not tolerate any act of indiscipline, corruption and I intend to lead by example. Therefore, officers and men would be positioned, posted based on their competence and their ability to perform. Individual officers will be assessed based on their performance and not on who they are”
Abubakar explained that the police under him would fight crime in all its ramifications; “whatever name you give it, either Boko Haram or armed robbery.
“I cannot do this job without my officers and men. There is no commander without troops. Therefore, we shall do what we shall do and you will be there to see what we shall do. But we need prayers because whatever you want to do, you need to pray.
“We have worked in some other places. We demonstrated it and we intend to demonstrate it here and we intend to do more. But take note that there is one big problem we have: the police is going to undergo serious restructuring. You are aware of the police committee set up by Mr. President.
“We are going to work together with them to ensure that Nigerians have the police force that they deserve; that will respect the rule of law; that will be honest, that will be committed, fair in the discharge of its responsibilities.
“Training is one area that we are lacking. We know we are lacking in training. And we intend to focus on it very seriously. We are going to place our police colleges and training institutions on a very serious tasking challenge for them to be able to train our officers and men.
“I am going to declare a state of emergency in all the training institutions so that we can look at the facilities, the staff and what they have on the ground. We cannot take policemen to institutions that are bad, that are tattered. Empowerment is lacking and so you cannot produce good police officers from there”.
Ringim said notwithstanding the negative public perception of his tenure in office, he gave the job his best.
“I have done my beat within the period that Mr. President graciously appointed me as the IGP. I told you I was going to do my best and to some extent, I did the best I could. I gave this challenge the best shot and I sincerely believe that I succeeded to a very large extent
“Anyone can contest that. I will not be bothered. But I sincerely believe that under my leadership, the Nigeria Police Force creditably discharged its functions and its obligations”
Insisting that he was not sacked, Ringim said: “Because of the fact that I needed to go for retirement, which letter I wrote to the President and which approval I also received from the Distinguished Senator Anyim Pius Anyim (SGF), it became necessary for the President to appoint a new IG and that IG is Mr. Mohammed Abubakar.
“I took time to brief him. Briefing a new IGP is not an easy matter considering the task ahead of him. But that being the case, we have successfully discussed and I have briefed him on what I know so far to be his duties and responsibilities. I have placed him on notice of the enormous responsibility that lies ahead of him”
“In this regard I will pray that God Almighty would afford the gentleman that sits on my left (Abubakar) also the opportunity and wisdom to steer the ship of the NPF better. I want to thank you for your patience”.
SOURCE: The Nation, 27 January 2012. http://www.thenationonlineng.net
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