IGP Disu takes hard stance on impunity, upgrades traffic warden unit

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Tunji Disu, on Friday declared that the era of impunity in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was over.

This was just as the top police brass assured that the Traffic Warden Unit of the NPF would be upgraded.

The IGP, who spoke in Benin during his official visit to the Edo State Command of the NPF, where he had an interactive session with officers of the command, said that until the interactive session, he never imagined some of the points raised by the officers of the command.

Disu assured that he would take all the issues raised by the officers and men of the Edo Police Command seriously, expressing gladness that his thoughts and understanding of the issues had been broadened.

“I am leaving here with what they have told me in confidence. And they have been able to broaden my thoughts.

“Now I have one or two things to do when I get back to Abuja — things I never gave thought to. For example, an officer of the Traffic Warden Unit stood up and said that, for many years now, there have not been recruitments into the corps of traffic wardens.

“That got me thinking. The Traffic Warden Unit should be upgraded. So when I get back home, we are going to talk about it,” the IGP reassured.

Speaking on the end of impunity, the IGP, who referred to the recent incident where a police officer allegedly shot dead a civilian who did not resist arrest, said:

“That’s impunity. You arrested somebody who was not struggling with you, you brought him out in broad daylight and you shot him.

“The police rose to the occasion immediately, tried them, dismissed them, and they are going to charge them to court. That is the meaning of impunity.

“As I mentioned earlier, the era of impunity is over. We have to have a new Nigeria Police Force. I know I cannot do it alone, that is why I have come here to talk to them, so that all of us will be on the same page,” Disu reiterated.

He disclosed that during the interactive session, “they gave me their word that they will build a new police force — a police force that the community, the state, and the Nigerian people can truly call their own.”

Also speaking, the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Monday Agbonika, urged the IGP to extend support to the command in the areas of logistics, tactical support, and personnel development.

According to him, “the command intensified high-visibility policing, aggressive bush-combing operations, confidence-building patrols, and intelligence-driven raids across identified criminal hideouts and flashpoints within the state,” hence the need for the IGP’s support.