IG deploys 138 more patrol vehicles to secure highways

BY OLUSESAN LAOYE

Following President Buhari’s directive on Monday that all soldiers should withdraw from checkpoints nationwide, the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, has deployed additional 138 police patrol vehicles to fill the vacuum  that has been created with the dismantling of military roadblocks on the highways.

Arase said the deployment would complement the 300 patrol teams that were deployed  nationwide last month to curb terrorism, armed robbery and kidnappings.

Answering questions from journalists after declaring open a workshop on improving police response to sexual and gender-based violence and gender mainstreaming on Tuesday in Abuja, the IG stated that the Force had designed strategies and measures to tackle cases of crime and criminality in the country.

“We are deploying 138 patrol teams in addition to the 300 teams that were earlier deployed across the nation, to enable us secure the highways more effectively; this is meant to fill the vacuum created by the dismantling of military checkpoints,” he stated.

According to him, the police are developing capacities to address gender-based crimes, adding that a technical platform is being designed to enable the public report cases of gender-based violence and sexual crimes without going to a police station.

Arase stated that the platform was made possible through the Ford Foundation which provided $300,000 for the take-off of the project.

He observed that the police lacked capacity to investigate gender-based violence, noting that policemen often ask victims of sexual crimes awkward questions, but this, he said, would no longer be necessary with the introduction of the technical platform.

Arase stated that the police are committed to protecting every member of the society, stressing that the force would not condone discrimination against anyone based on their gender.

He said that one of the repugnant policies he found in the police was the regulation  which says a female officer could only marry after she had served a number of years in the force while their male counterparts could get married right from the police college, adding that steps were being taken to correct such anomalies.

“We are committed to the protection of men, women and children and we won’t accept any policy that discriminates against women, like the policy that prevents female police officers from getting married for a period of time, while their male counterparts can get married even while in police college. However, any law that is against the constitution is  a nullity,” Arase noted.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police, Gender Advisor, Olabisi Kolawole, stressed that the creation of the gender unit of the force has inspired female police personnel to equally aspire to great heights along with their male counterparts.

She called on stakeholders in gender issues to rally round the police force in terms of capacity building for personnel deployed to the office.