Police Include Rights Protection in Training Curriculum
Ikechukwu Aleke in Abuja
The Police, yesterday, said that they had included protection and promotion of human rights in the curriculum of police training institutions to train police personnel that would respect the rights of citizens, while discharging their constitutional duty of law enforcement.
The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, said this in Abuja, during the Nigeria police force youth summit, organised to commemorate the 2024 United Nations International Youth Day Celebration, as well as engage with Nigerian youths on national security.
He noted that he had ordered the divisional police officers across the federation to leverage volunteers, such as special police constabulary, and vigilante groups to provide adequate security within their areas of responsibility.
Egbetokun also disclosed that the police had since flagged off farm patrol in Northeast, to enable farmers return to their farms to ensure food security.
He celebrated the achievements of the anti-cult unit of the force, which was set up to checkmate cult activities in secondary schools in Nigeria.
Noting that bad eggs were not peculiar to the police alone, the IGP said society got the kind of police it deserved as police personnel were recruited from the population, adding that the police had put mechanism in place to fish out its own bad eggs.
In a keynote address, the former Vice Chancellor, Lagos State University, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, told the police that the dimension of security threats in Nigeria had migrated from physical to the digital space.
He identified these new threats to include, misinformation and disinformation, hacking, espionage, subversion amongst other cyber crimes.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Malagi, who was represented by Director General, Voice of Nigeria, Jibrin Ndache, appealed to the youths to work with the president to move to nation to the next level.
The Minister of Police Affairs, Sen Ibrahim Gaidam, said government policies which were currently causing some pains would herald a brighter future for Nigerian youths, and rebuild Nigeria.
Represented by Permanent Secretary, James Sule, the minister highlighted some government policies like operationalisation of the student loan scheme, which gives every Nigerian youth equal opportunity to access higher education.
The National President UNESCO Read and Earn Federation (UNESCO REF), Abdulsalami Ladigbolu, called for youth engagement in national security.
He also noted that it was time to acknowledge the role of young people as change agents in transforming the country.
