Ben Agande
1 April 2007
interview
Lagos — The inspector general of police, Sunday Ehindero, in this interview, speaks on the preparation of the police ahead of the forth-coming elections and other sundry issues. Excerpts:
You have been saddled with the responsibility of providing security in this instance where Nigeria would be transiting from one civilian regime to another. Do you have all it takes to guarantee security during the April elections?
The election is two weeks from now. In the last one-year, we have been preparing. We have had interactive sessions with the civil society, the Independent National Electoral Commission and all senior police officers from commissioners and above. Even up till Thursday, we continued with the dialogue and, as a final preparation, INEC, in conjunction with the police and other security agencies, have been having interactive sessions in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and other cities so that police officers in those states would take the message back to their commands. We have been preparing intellectually and physically. We have already conveyed to the government what we need to be able to provide a conducive atmosphere for the elections. We have received a lot of equipment.
About two thousand four wheel drive vehicles would be coming in. If you look outside, you would see so many motorcycles which we would use for patrol purposes. We have things that would distinguish our policemen. At the appropriate time, we would inform members of the public. We are prepared for this election.
Do not be carried away by one or two incidences of violence during the campaigns. It is normal in situations like this. My hope is rekindled when I heard comments of people comparing the situation at this time in 2003 and at this time in 1998. Many people have said the country is more stable now than before and there is greater security.
We have a government in control that is also a ruling party, which would want its candidates to win. Do we have any guarantee that the police would remain neutral in the performance of its duties? Won't the police look elsewhere when the political manouverings begin?
How can the police look elsewhere? I am happy you said it is a perception, which is different from reality. It is for us to change that perception because things have changed. The public is more enlightened and the electoral law will not even allow the police to look elsewhere. Any body who plans to carry the ballot box is a fool because the votes must have been counted at the polling stations. It is only a fool that will think of carrying the ballot box.
The police are a neutral body. Our job is not to conduct the election, that is the function of INEC. Our job is providing security for the electoral officials, the materials and those who are voting. The political parties are expected to provide agents at the polling stations.
Times have changed. There is no alternative to having a free and fair election. The laws have been changed from what we used to know. We ought to observe law. We will allow the laws to guide our actions. Of course, we will also ensure that those who do not obey the laws are brought to book. That is my function as a policeman. The laws that we had in the past did not assist the electoral process but all that has changed. What we have today is better and workable. I have no doubt that we will have a free and fair election.
I do not see how police can be partial. We cannot look elsewhere when things are going wrong. I have educated all the people involved in the electoral process and I am satisfied with the response. The function of the police, as far as this election is concerned, is to be accountable to the law, to the people.
We have heard of illegal arms and ammunition being moved around the country. What are you doing to counter the possible deployment of these arms?
If you see my weekly report, you will see that we have been seizing arms and ammunitions, a lot of them on a daily basis. We also have joint patrols with the customs and the immigration at the border to ensure that arms are not smuggled into the country. I agree with you that there are lots of arms in the country in the hands of those who are not authorised to carry them. We have been doing a lot to retrieve these arms from these criminals. Don't forget that we are in a region where we had wars. But I believe that with the cessation of hostilities in most of these countries, there would be less flow of arms into the country. We have been doing our best and we have achieved some results. We have equipment to be able to detect arms.
During one of the campaigns in Lagos, there was shooting by some of the policemen. We wonder why policemen would shoot during political campaigns?
The policeman knows when he should use the firearms. We have force order 2, 3, 7 on when you should use your firearms and when you use your firearms outside these stipulated provisions, you will be sanctioned. I am sure the commissioner of police in that state must have dealt with the situation.
If you observe, you would have noticed that the incidences of accidental discharge is minimal. This is because; we train them in the use of firearms.
The redeployment of some commissioners of police has raised some interests among members of the public especially coming at such a short time to the elections. What informed such decision?
You will not want a weak commissioner who cannot handle a particular situation to remain in a particular place that would present challenges. We know ourselves. We know those who will meet certain challenges. All we want is to have peaceful elections and not someone who will aggravate a particular situation but someone who can live up to a challenge.
Delta State for instance has been a crime prone area for several years and the commissioner of police in that state before his redeployment to Lagos was able to deal with the situation fairly well. We have the statistics to show. I know my commissioners that are operationally good. Some of the robbers in Abuja here were killed in Delta State in a shoot out with the police. He did well. There are people that we posted there but could not meet up with the challenges of that state.
Recent retrenchment of some police officers has attracted some criticism with some people alleging that it was not properly done?
Those who are not happy should be bold enough to come and say which area was not properly done. I must tell you that I did not give any body's name for retrenchment. It was a collation from all the divisions of those who had bad records, those who are deformed or incapacitated. I cannot keep a mad man in the police to carry arms. Some people derailed for whatever reason. Some became incapacitated from natural causes.
We have people who came into the force through distortions. Some came with forged certificates, distorted age and all sorts of things. These are the people we want to weed out.
What is your message to Nigerians as the elections approach?
Nigerians should expect better service delivery. We have trained a lot of our men on community policing and they have imbibed the culture of service. We will utilise them during the election. There is more to law enforcement than rough tackling your fellow human being.
I expect that the conduct of this election would be an example for our sister countries in Africa to look up to us because at the end of the day we would have been able to justify our position not only as one of the most populous country in Africa but as one that can do things right.
Wouldn't non-payment of the new salaries for the police dampen the morale of your men who are going to be involved in the elections?
I think it should boost their morale. If you know that your salary has been increased and government would pay you, it is like keeping your money in the bank. The day you will be paid, you will have lots of money. There is no body that has been paid in the public service; so why worry. The increment should be a motivation.
How do you intend to distribute the 2000 four-wheel drive that are coming and how do you maintain them?
We will deploy them to all the local government councils in the country and we will give some to the state commands to distribute based on their needs. The motorcycles that we have also bought would complement these cars. We have bought the spare parts that would be used to maintain these cars. We will also increase the amount meant for the maintenance of our operational vehicles.
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