Police Personnel to own Houses on Retirement- DIG Inyang

Officers and Men of the Nigeria Police Force are to own personal residential houses on or before retirement under a new Housing Scheme introduced by the force.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Training and Development, DIG Emmanuel T. Inyang, stated this in Sokoto during at Human Rights Sensitization and Training of Trainers Workshops for Police Officers of Sokoto State Command.

He said that the scheme which has taken off is being implemented through the Nigeria Police Force Cooperative Society in collaboration with the Federal Mortgage Bank and in partnership with private developers on an “owner – occupier” basis.

DIG Inyang reiterated the commitment of the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force under the current Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, in improving the welfare of all personnel through motivation of training and    re-training, promotion and the provision of working materials and equipments.

He recalled the recent unprecedented mass promotion in the force that cut across all cadres and hinted that the exercise will continue as part of a welfare package being implemented gradually to boost their morale.

DIG Inyang said the human rights training workshop is aimed at providing a platform to reach out to men and officers of the force on the need for the promotion and protection of human rights in the discharge of their duties.

He maintained that the training provides the participants with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to effectively discharge their duties in accordance with the rule of law in compliance with human rights best practices.

DIG Inyang said the program was impacting positively on the force as cases of victimization, brutalization, torture and other forms of human rights violations and abuses by officers and men of the force are being reduced to the barest minimum and appealed to members of the public to cooperate and assist the police in its assigned task of protection of life and property, detection and prevention of crime as well as the maintenance of law and order.

In a remark, Mrs Ogechi Ogu who spoke on behalf of Mr Yinka Lawal, the Executive Director of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, PRAWA, the coordinators of the Nigeria Police Human Rights Training Program, said that mainstreaming human rights principles into the operations and duties of the force would reduce the incidences of human rights violations by officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force.

All Divisional Police Officers (DPOs), Divisional Crime Officers (DCOs) and Human Rights Desk Officers of the 26 Divisions and Formations of the Sokoto State Police Command, some Human Rights Activists, Lawyers, Social Welfare Officers, Oversight Resource Teams, Representatives of the Legal Aid Council, the National Human Rights Commission and Prison Officers are attending the weeklong series of trainings at the workshop.

Media Focal Person of the Human Rights Training Programme, Abdulkadir Ahmed Ibrahim, said the trainings and the workshops are conducted with the support of the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of the Swiss Government, the European Union and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The five year planned program has so far covered Cross River, Lagos, FCT, Anambra and Benue states, the Nigeria Police Academy Wudil in Kano State, the Police Training Colleges in Ikeja Lagos State and Kaduna in Kaduna state while some selected Instructors from all the Police Training Schools and Colleges in the country and the Academy were equally trained.

By PRNigeria