Inspector General (IG) of Police Mohammed Abubakar has ordered Police commands in country to allow women to bail suspects arrested by them as there was no law in the country’s statute book that stops such. He added that it was untrue, claims emanating from certain quarters that women cannot take suspects on bail from police cells.
The IG dropped the hint in Calabar, Cross River recently at a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss the way forward on the ongoing police reform, saying, “there is no law barring women from taking people on bail”. He assured Nigerians of a refined police force that will be friendly and respectful.
Abubakar said as part of the reform process, about 20,000 policemen and women will undergo training and retraining as a way of injecting innovations to ensure a better police force in the country.
According to him: “We intend to build a people-friendly police force?? that will be respected and will also respect Nigerians. It will be a well- trained, well-motivated police force that is able to assist or aid children and the aged and all Nigerians in times of needs”
He assured the police officers of a?? better? living wage as a means of boosting efficiency, noting that? the increment will dissuade them from criminal-mindedness. He promised to decentralize the police pension office, stating that the move is to ensure ease in pension payment to retirees as against the old order of undue delay.
On the Boko-Haram insurgency, Abubakar said members of the sect are criminals as they have no justification for their action and urged Nigerians to ‘downplay’ their activities, stating that giving thought to their activities is tantamount to promoting them and assured that the force will do everything possible to contain the tendency of the insurgents as well as reduce crime rate in the country to the barest minimum.
He urged members of the public and other stakeholders to support the police in the area of crime prevention by divulging useful information to the police personnel for necessary action.