Police Affairs Minister, Dr Ibrahim Lame on Monday said the dismissal of former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu from the Nigeria Police Force was final and can not be revisited.
Lame told newsmen in Abuja during his address to senior police officers at the Force Headquarters that Ribadu’s dismissal from the Force bothered on indiscipline which he said could not be tolerated.
He said the dismissal of the former EFCC boss was in order, stressing that it is a normal process used to weed out officers seen to have exhibited behavior considered not to be in tandem with established norms in the system.
“It is a disciplinary issue and as you know, we are running this institution on discipline and so, we cannot allow anybody to lower the standard.”
Addressing the officers who included the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mike Okiro, Lame commended the police management team on their efforts to curb violent crimes, but he however acknowledged that the country is witnessing other forms of criminalities like assassinations and kidnapping.
The minister told the officers that these crimes pose great challenges to the force.
“The Nigeria Police, therefore, being an indispensable agency in the management and maintenance of domestic peace, law and order, must strategically, functionally, operationally and attitudinally reposition itself to meet these challenges using international acceptable practices.
“I therefore charge you all to evolve and design strategies to checkmate these crimes, which will also consolidate on the successes recorded so far.”
“In designing these strategies, you must pay great attention to intelligence gathering, because all over the world today, intelligence – led policing has become latest trend. Intelligence gathering makes it possible for the police to nip crimes in the bud before they occur, and even when they do occur, it helps in easy investigation and detection,” he asserted.
Speaking on the welfare of the police and recruitment of officers, the minister stated that the approval of the federal government to pay the Consolidated Police Salary Structure as from January 2007 was to encourage the police to discharge their duties more efficiently and effectively.
He declared that it was wrong for unqualified people to be recruited into the police.
“There have been rampant cases of recruitment of unqualified people into the force lately. This trend has got to stop. The era of recruitment of people based on patronage has gone. Henceforth, recruitment will be judiciously carried out, based on the approved federal character. “The recruitment policy of this administration will ensure only qualified and morally upright members of the public are recruited into the force. The police must cease to be a dumping ground,” he said.