Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Tuesday said the country will certainly surmount the ‘difficult phase’ of security concerns it is going through at the moment, urging Nigerians to rally behind the President and the security agencies to combat the challenges.
AbdulRazaq spoke in Ilorin, the state capital, at the passing out ceremony of the newly recruited police special constabularies (community police) who would now be deployed to their various local governments to strengthen intelligence gathering and security in the state.
“We must commend and continue to support the security agencies. Kwara is arguably the safest state in Nigeria today because of the work they are doing. We want to keep it that way. So, we must all support security agencies. We are passing through a difficult phase now but this will definitely come to past,” he said at the ceremony.
“For us, security begins with all of us in our homes and in our work places. We must all report suspicious movements. We must make sure we give the right information to the security agencies so that it can be actionable. That is the only way they can totally secure our communities.”
AbdulRazaq urged the citizens to be active informants to aid the activities of the police and other security agencies.
“We must not just sit down and expect the police and other security agencies to perform magic. We must support our security agencies to perform their jobs with the right information. They are doing their best and we commend them for the work they are doing. As citizens, we must be active informants and offer useful information to security agencies,” he said.
“With your graduation today, you are fitting into the security architecture, linking the entire population with your communities and remain the core professionals in the police force by ensuring that the right information or intelligence is passed through. Your presence will give confidence to the people in your communities and the state at large to make sure the environment is peaceful.”
Addressing the Special Constabulary Police Graduants, the Inspector General of Police Usman Alkali Baba said the trainees had been properly groomed in the basic knowledge of policing and respect for human rights of the citizens.
He singled out Kwara State and the Governor for commendation for sponsoring the highest number of police constabularies for the initiative nationwide.
“The trainees here included 16 persons from each local government sponsored by the federal government and 50 persons (from each local government) sponsored by the state government which I considered the highest sponsored among the states of the federation, all together,” according to Baba, who was represented by the Kwara State Police Commissioner Mohammed Bagega.
“We have 1,056 trainees who have successfully undergone police training in the prestigious training school located in Ilorin. I want to thank Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for his unending support to the Police and for making the training of first batch of special constabulary candidates in Kwara State a reality. I want to also appreciate community policing advisory committee for the wonderful jobs they have been performing in the state.”
Baba advised the new constabulary policemen to remain disciplined, obey lawful directives, respect and protect human rights of all Nigerians and be good ambassadors of the Nigeria police in their respective communities.
