President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday had a close-door meeting with heads of security agencies in the country and urged them to sustain the tempo to eliminate insurgents and bandits.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar Adamu said the president also directed the security agencies to ensure that armed robbery, kidnappings and other criminal activities are addressed.
He said the meeting reviewed the security situation all over the country and realized its stable; banditry and kidnapping have been reduced.
“The meeting reviewed the security situation all over the country and we realize that its stable, banditry has been reduced to the nearest minimum, kidnapping has been reduced significantly.
“The epicenter of this kidnapping as you know in the north western part of the country – Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, they are all very calm now. The insurgency in the northeast on daily basis they are being degraded and many of the insurgents are surrounding to the authorities, they are giving up their arms and for that reason we have been encouraged to sustain the tempo.
“All the successes recorded that comes from cooperation from members of the public, including the press because most of you have objectively assessed the actual security situation in the country, which your followers agreed to it.
“So, we have been encouraged to continue with the tempo so that insurgency can be greatly eliminated from the country.
“Politicians and the hunters that have been working with us and other stakeholders, we have been encouraged to work more closely with such group of people so as to have the information that we require, so as to have the support that we require in other to defeat any form of criminality within the country,” he said.
Speaking on the just concluded elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, the IGP said the intelligence gathered by security agencies necessitated the deployment of large number of policemen.
He said the attack on polling centres and snatching of electoral materials were done by fake fake police.
The IGP said there were reported cases of people in police and army uniforms who did not have the tags and were fake.
According to him: “Before the elections, threats assessment of the two states and we realize that there was going to the violence in two states. Because, during the campaigns we saw how the opponents were fighting themselves, so we prepared so much for that.
“During one of the stakeholders meeting, I went to Kogi with the chairman of INEC and I also went to Bayelsa. Even at the point of signing the peace accord to conduct the election without any problems, after signing the peace accord in Kogi, within the hall there was problem by the parties. So we knew that it was not going to be easy and so we had to prepare heavily for that elections.
“During the elections, anybody you saw either in police uniform or military uniform that does not carry the tag that has been given for the election, that person is not genuine police officer or military officer or that he was not on official duty.
“Because, we were aware of the fact that or we were told that some politicians were going to sow police and military uniforms, so we device some other means of identifying those that were on elections duty. We gave them tags. So no police officers in their senses because recruited and trained them before the elections to play by the rule, be professional, work within where you are posted and not beyond.
“There was police helicopter that was overing, it was on patrol and in the cause of patrol you will see some incidence of maybe people fighting, people trying to snatch ballot boxes.
Now, you need to intervene and in the cause of intervention of course you can never use fire arms because during elections we don’t carry firearms.
“So that helicopter you saw was to patrol and scare those that will want to snatch ballot boxes. Of course if you see helicopter overing over your head you want to snatch ballot box or you have carried, definitely you will know you are being monitored and you will stop. So prevention was our focus with the helicopter,” he said.
