AN ADDRESS PRESENTED BY THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF AKWA IBOM STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY CHIEF GODSWILL OBOT AKPABIO, ON THE OCCASION OF THE POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION RETREAT 2010 IN UYO, NOVEMBER 1, 2010

AN ADDRESS PRESENTED BY THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF AKWA IBOM STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY CHIEF GODSWILL OBOT AKPABIO, ON THE OCCASION OF THE POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION RETREAT 2010 IN UYO, NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Protocol

Accept the warm welcome of the Government and good people of Akwa Ibom State to the land of promise and of limitless opportunities. We are happy that you chose our state for this retreat and we are certain that the promises which define our state as the land of promise will prevail for you in the course of this retreat, and bring useful and rewarding outcomes for our country and posterity.

The theme of this retreat, “Repositioning the Nigeria Police to meet the Challenges of Policing a Democratic Society in the 21st Century and Beyond” is an eloquent testimony of your commitment to the sustenance of our democracy. We offer you our best wishes and prayers and we believe your eminent resource persons will bring the needed insight to bear in tackling this subject.

The eyes of the nation are on you as the security challenges of our nation increase. As members of the Police Service Commission, your role in ensuring that our policemen are highly motivated and function according to their constitutional responsibilites and best global practices is more than a duty, it is an obligation. But I have faith that you have what it takes to bear this burden and render a good account of yourselves.

In our state, we inaugurated the Joint Military Task Force we nicknamed Operation Aduma in 2007. We inherited a state which was in a state of siege and robbers sometimes held cities in our state to ransom for hours on end. Robbery had become commonplace and the level of insecurity was high.

We equipped the task force with the latest communication equipments and vehicles. Operation Aduma was an instant success and we succeeded in reducing the response time to emergencies by more than 200 percent and increasing their firepower significantly. Today, let me seize this opportunity to pay tribute to the men and women of that security outfit who left legacies of courage and altered the situation. They effectively made robberies difficult for robbers and in recent times we have had only a few and scattered incidents of robbery.

Unfortunately, faced with the difficulty of continuing with robberies and unable to match the firepower of the security task force, the robbers, with the encouragement of political desperadoes, have taken to kidnapping. Kidnapping has proved a difficult nut to crack because, like guerrillas, they strike when they like and at times of least resistance. They map their routes and ways of escape and take them. More so their political backers provide them with logistics and information and pick their targets for them. While they strike, their political godfathers drive the propaganda machinery to make some political capital out of the dastardly situation.

We have not been idle and we have scored a lot of successes against them. We are importing additional security equipment to help stem this tide of criminality in our state and our commitment to ensuring that every security challenge is overcome is inflexible. Let it be known to both kidnappers and their sponsors that they can run but they cannot hide and sooner than later the long hands of the law will catch up with them. We intend to pursue them even to the ends of this world and we will not relent!

Additionally, I would want to seize this opportunity to speak once more on the need for a state police. My candid opinion is that we should have a state police which should operate side by side with a Federal law enforcement agency, much like the Federal Bureau of Investigation operates alongside state police departments in the United States of America. Among the rich advantages a state police would have is the fact that it would be possible to put to practice the concept of community policing.

Policemen depend on information and intelligence to function and where the citizenry do not know the policemen or see them as strangers, they may fail to share information with them because of personal security concerns. This stumbling block can only be eliminated by having a state police.

It was Robert Kennedy, brother of US President John Kennedy and a former Attorney General of the United States who said that "Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on." Sirs, your body was formed so that you would, on our collective behalf, insist upon the kind of law enforcement we deserve.

The police needs to be restructured to embark on definite strategic steps to regain the confidence of the masses. We, the Akwa Ibom State Government, have an excellent relationship with the Police Command in our state. We have collaborated with them on sensitization programmes to change the public perception of the police and these have yielded great dividends. It is up to the police to build on this and maintain a rewarding relationship with the citizenry. If the police enjoys the confidence of the masses, they would have a greater information reservoir and half of our security problems would be solved.

But I have faith that this retreat can make a difference. I have faith that history could look back to today and define it as the day when gathered in the serene environment of Uyo, these great Nigerians crafted a new police structure which lived up to its nationalistic aspirations and became imbued with a sincere sense of responsibility. Right here in Akwa Ibom State you can lay the foundation for a police structure which would uncompromisingly uphold human rights, preserve basic freedom without distinction, reinforce the rule of law and keep the rich and the poor safe. I have faith that you can reposition the police to meet the challenges of policing a democratic society.

Once again I thank you for choosing our state and hope you would spare some time from your schedule to witness the uncommon transformation of our state by the present administration. We have attempted to make our state a destination in the country and in the Gulf of Guinea and we are comforted that your presence here underscores the point that we are succeeding.

Thank you for your kind attention.

God bless you.