Date: 2021-03-22

Former intelligence and community policing officer, Metropolitan Police, United Kingdom, Alhaji Hanbali AbdulRaheem has called for the conversion of the personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to community policing officers.

AbdulRaheem made this suggestion during an interview with LEADERSHIP in Ilorin, Kwara State.

He said converting the NSCDC personnel to community policing officers would save the outfit from being hijacked by the state governors. He added: "The issue of community policing must be resolved once and for all. There must be community and state policing but not the way and manner it's being proposed in Nigeria. The UK models of community policing should be adopted. I will suggest that the federal government should convert the NSCDC personnel to community policing officers to save the outfit from being hijacked by the state governors."

To put a stop to banditry and kidnapping in parts of the country, the security expert asked the government to stop paying ransom to the kidnappers and bandits, noting that" this encourages them to keep committing such dastardly acts, we must find means to eliminate them once and for all."

AbdulRaheem who advocated death penalty for the bandits and kidnappers, said the government through all states and federal legislatures should as a matter of urgency make laws criminalizing the acts of kidnapping and banditry in the country.

"Anyone caught should face the death penalty and all proceeds from such acts must be confiscated by the government," he added.

He emphasised the need for various intelligence units in the country to be up and doing through credible intelligence gathering and information, noting that without credible intelligence information as regards the operations and mode of attacks by the bandits and the kidnappers "we can't achieve anything".

"There are various intelligence agencies and departments in this country but it seems they are not doing their best in that aspect.

In addition, our security forces must be proactive rather than being reactive in nature as we are currently witnessing. How many times have we heard that our security personnel busted and raided the kidnappers hideouts? Not to the best of my knowledge. In most cases we always react after the crime had been committed.

"These criminals are living within us and the onus equally lies with all of us, especially the traditional rulers to always report any suspicious behaviour with security threats to the law enforcement agencies in their domains."