The Oba of Lagos and a retired Assistant Inspector – General of
Police, Rilwan Akiolu, on Friday blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for
the rot the Nigerian Police has been enmeshed in.
He explained that Buhari’s regime as a military leader between 1983
and 1985, on the suspicion that there was a conspiracy in the Police
Force against the regime, refused to fund the police, hence the genesis
of the problem in the Force today.
Akiolu has therefore called on Buhari to try and confront the myriad
of challenges stopping the NPF from functioning effectively now that he
has returned to power as a democrat.
The Oba of Lagos stated this during a seminar in Lagos, entitled
“Providing Strategic Solutions to Emergent Security Challenges: The
Essentials of Synergy Amongst Security Agencies and Civil Populace.”
The seminar was put together by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
Akiolu said, “The military killed the efficiency and effectiveness of
the Nigeria Police Force. The problem of the police started with Buhari
in 1984 when he was Head of State. They said (Sunday) Adewusi wanted to
take over the government. I explained to them that it was not possible
at all.
“There was a meeting sometime ago in Abuja where all of us were
summoned. I was very happy when Buhari told us that 10,000 policemen
would be recruited for efficiency and effectiveness of the Nigeria
Police Force.”
Akiolu further said that he had also in 1997, advised a former Head
of State, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, on the importance of creating enough
police stations on expressways to take care of highway robberies.
“What he (Abubakar) told me was that ‘Commissioner, do you want me to
commit all the resources of the government to the police alone?’”
Some of the problems besetting NPF over the years have been poor
training and funding. Many blame this as the reason some officers of the
force engage in unwholesome practices.
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