FCT Police Commissioner, Wilson Inalegwu, assumed office September 15, 2014. Before then, he served in the United Nations Peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone and was also in charge of the police at the Presidential Villa. In this interview, he explains the challenges of fighting crime where the seat of power resides as well as preparations for the 2015 elections.
Strategies
On assumption of office, I tried to understand my environment by talking to my colleagues, the DPOs, Area commanders and Heads of Departments first of all because in policing an area, you must understand the expectations of your community. You cannot just come with a solution without understanding what the issues are.
I usually tell people that we are like doctors; you have to do your diagnosis before you begin to think of prescription of drugs. So I came with a policing strategy for the FCT, both the short term and long term and I looked at the little survey I had, I discovered that our people are concerned about crimes like robberies, one chance. Some are concerned about the invasion of their privacy. Cars are stolen once in a while but that did not put up quite much challenge because we went to the various communities and we found out that not all these people have cars.
Issues
Then progressing from there, we began to have new issues of security in the Northeast impacting directly on the people and that became an issue for us; having a lot of people coming to settle in the FCT. Also we are looking at cattle rustling again because it became an issue in the rural places.
So we had to strategies to deal with these issues heavily and so far we have had very interesting development. Cattle rustling have been occurring so much in the FCT because it is close to our borders like Nasarawa, Kogi, Kaduna and Niger states. We tried to interact with our colleagues in Nasarawa and Kogi because if we chase them out of FCT and they are still around Kogi, Nasarawa and Kaduna, then it means we are not safe.
We are also having interactions with the Area Commanders. I called the CP Nasarawa to look at areas around where we think this people will be pushed to. Some of them are from Zamfara and other places. They are herdsmen who don’t have cattle’s and naturally, when you don’t have something to do, it becomes an issue.
Because of that, I invited some of the leaders of the cattle traders , the leaders from the various villages, we met with them but the number is not as much as I would have loved to have. We said that all of them should come to the FCT to meet with me and the Minister so that we will know the new ones that have come, look at their pedigree, their antecedents, where are they coming from. We will look at the new cattle traders; find how long they have been on the trade. We are also interacting with the various chiefs, the Gumo of Kuje, so that they take another look at those in their neighborhood. The Wakili Fulani as the case may be.
So we are looking at it comprehensively so that we know those who have just come to the territory and what is it that they are doing. Did they come with cattle to the FCT or did they just come to settle? We called the various youth leaders, the Gbagy original inhabitants; we interacted with them when we came.
We had the representative of the Okada riders, we also had market women, National Union of Road Transport Workers NURTW and various groups they came and we had a very interesting interaction, including traditional and religious leaders. All these people came and one of the things we found is that they want peace, they want to partner with the police and other security agencies and for us, this is a step in the right direction.
Polls
On the forthcoming elections, we took firm steps to ensure that elections in FCT are conducted under a very peaceful atmosphere. We embarked on training of our officers on election duties, teaching them their roles and responsibilities at the election. We also went ahead to commission the Joint Operation Center which I think is the first in the country for the elections and we have the best crop of officers from the various security agencies as members. We have from the DSS, the Military, Civil Defence, Road Safety and others.
This is to bring us all together because we cannot just work, we need coordination. The security agencies have all brought the list of their personnel that will participate in the elections. They have handed them over to us and we are doing a common deployment for all the agencies.
But the military role as you know is to be at the strategic places in case situation demand. But to other agencies that have submitted their list to us; the ones I have mentioned are part of the Joint Task Force. The Centre is to monitor the various voting centre’s and these deployment is based mainly on threats analysis because when we did based on the threats, we got some excerpts from the police intelligence bureau and military intelligence and the rest.
We factored it from the plans we are making so that when we are deploying, we will deploy in such a way that they can deal with the threats that are identified in those locations. For instance, the threat in Maitama will definitely be different from the threat you will have in Kwali or Abaji.
So all these have been taken into consideration and we have adequate number of personnel. Force headquarters is also giving us men including Counter terrorists and Mobile Police personnel. The zone has given us a list of their personnel and all these we are deploying from the command so we can have peaceful elections. Remember that in FCT, we just have the March 28 election. We don’t have governorship. We have had that of local government. So everything is being done to ensure that it goes peacefully.
Checkmating violence
As a way of also ensuring that violence is checkmated and stopped from occurring in the FCT, last Thursday, I went to meet all the forum of Imams, all the Jumat Imams, all the Imams you can think of in FCT. Under one roof we discussed. They were frank with us, we were frank with them and we invited them as partners to preach peace. It was very interesting because one of the men that I found there, I knew him a long time ago when I was DPO in Lagos.
He wanted to travel to Pakistan and he spent a week in my house in Lagos. I had forgotten about him and he said look, I was in your house in Lagos when I was to travel to Pakistan and the whole forum was very happy and they received me like a brother. Next week, I will be meeting with CAN. I will not invite them; I am going to meet them in their domain just like I did with the Imams. So we are having this relationship. They said they were going to tell us anything they find within their domain and they are going to tune their preaching to peace. I could see the desire for peace from their faces and in their speech.
Tackling crime
Concerning issues relating to tackling crime, I think FCT is doing very well. Every day we are arresting criminals. Our guys came back from Zaria this morning. We had a guy who snatched a car from here last week.
We arrested two of them in Zaria; arrested the receiver and seller. We have so far recovered three cars, eleven cars in Zamfara and Sokoto which my guys are out there to bring down. So I think we are not doing badly. On a regular basis, the work of the Joint Task team that the FCTA set up, which I chair, a lot of motorbikes have been impounded as well as unregistered taxis and we continue to encourage people to go and register if you want to operate a taxi so that the numbers can be clearly displayed.
People are falling victims; they are initially traumatized. The general fear is, you want to enter a taxi, you are not sure if it is one chance and all that but we try to discourage this. We are also collaborating with Niger and Nasarawa command because a lot of them come from Madalla and One man village in the remote area.
Very soon, I intend to talk to the Minister after the elections period so that we can revive the G6-G7 so that we can have a comprehensive strategy that will bring on board our colleagues in the neighboring commands.
Zero tolerance
Thank God all the CPs around the FCT are my friends, my brothers and all that. The CP in Nasarawa is my course mate. The CP in Kaduna we worked very well together. Our policy is to have zero tolerance to crime in the FCT.
I tell my colleagues that if any crime is reported to us, it is a big issue because there shouldn’t be any at all because the Minister of FCT is doing his best to pay allowances for personnel of ACCOS patrol and the IG is doing his best. He has so far given us a lot of vehicles more than any command. We have a lot of vehicles, and he didn’t just give us vehicles, he has also given us personnel from the Force headquarters MOPOLs. If you go around FCT, you will find a lot of new formations because the IGP has given us additional support. The policy of the force is that there should not be crime at all so any time we record any, it becomes a big issue because this is where you have the President, the National Assembly, Judiciary, name them.
And what happens here impacts on the image of the country because what attracts investors should be that Nigeria is safe. We are mindful of this responsibility. That is why we say our policy is zero tolerance for crime.
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