#TrackNigeria A former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Sir Mike Okiro, has called for an urgent national security summit to enable stakeholders brainstorm on new strategies to tackle insecurity.
Okiro made the suggestion in an interview on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.
“Nobody knows it all, every career has development experts, so I think the present state of insecurity in our country shows that there is an urgent need for security experts to brainstorm and add value to their mission.
“I think that the summit will avail security experts an opportunity to synergise, dialogue and and even introduce new strategies for a collective task.
“I recommend that relevant bodies and officers with great experience should participate in the proposed summit.
“Serving senior officers, retired senior officers in the police and the military, security agencies that have had a lot of experiences and who had taken part in the fight against crime and insecurity in the past should be well incorperated,” he said.
The former Police boss also applauded the Federal Government’s move towards increasing the numerical strength of the police force.
According to him, the move shows that the force is progressing.
“If this process continues as at when due and conscientiously too, we shall meet our target in terms of equating the number of police officers to our population and size.
“Judging by our population, size and geographical spread, Nigeria should be entitled to about 800,000 police officers actively involved in security and peace keeping,” he said.
Okiro also advised on the enforcement of functional CCTV Cameras in banks, hotels, accredited security check points and public places in order to enhance internal security.
“When I was a serving Inspector-General, I introduced the idea of CCTV Camera installation in banks so that bank robbery could be tackled.
“At that time, I made it compulsory that police officers should not be posted to serve in any bank that has no CCTV camera and the banks all complied with that order.
“The result we had then was quite impressive, as it drastically reduced the rate of bank robberies, so, I suggest that these cameras should be installed at strategic places for effective policing.
“People all over the world use the CCTV camera for policing the society,” Okiro said. (NAN)
