Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bolanta, enjoys a good working relationship with the Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala. But he told DailySun in an interview that he would not because of this engage in criminal act of collaborating with the governor to rig the next year’s elections. He also spoke on many other salient issues. Excerpts:
Security during the 2011elections
We have been able to keep criminals at bay here. That shows the type of preparation we have for the 2011 elections. We are fully on the ground. Our men are constantly being trained. Sometime ago, we organized a stakeholders meeting with all political parties’ representatives. We let them know what is expected of them.
Before the election, we intend to organize series of such meetings. It will not only involve the political stakeholders. We are going to bring other organizations that are relevant to electioneering so that we can all rub minds together to ensure hitch-free elections in 2011.
Curbing violence
We have been able to curb political violence here. Sometime last year there were about four bye-elections that were held in the state. All were held without any form of thuggery or violence. We made it known to all the stakeholders that we are not going to tolerate any act of violence or thugery.
In fact, we made it known that anybody found with arms during political campaign will not be treated as political thugs but as criminals, as robbers because it is robbers who carry arms openly.
Police and the NDLEA
We have a very good relationship with the NDLEA in Oyo State. What we are doing now is what is called community policing. If community policing is to succeed, there must be a very good inter-agency co-operation. We have a very good working relationship with all the security agencies within the state. And with the NDLEA, it has been marvelous. When we get any information we pass it across to them. When we make arrest we don’t just hold on to such arrest, immediately we inform them hand over such exhibits and suspects to them. Not only that. Our men that make the arrest also interact with the NDLEA and attend court anytime the suspects are arraigned in court.
Relationship between you, your command and Alao-Akala?
The relation between us is very cordial. The governor is the Chief Executive Officer of the state. He is the Chief Security Officer of the state and we have no other thing to do than to have a good working relationship with the governor. Let’s forget the fact that the man was an ex-police officer. If he were to be an ordinary civilian we have to at least give him the due support that is required of the Chief Executive Officer of the state. We are here to make sure he succeeds as the Chief Security Officer of the state. The relationship is excellent and he has been helping us.
Using police to steal ballot boxes and rig in 2011 elections
Since I assume office here the governor has never given me instruction to go and humiliate or to go and intimidate anybody or any group. If he has not done that now, how would he do it during the election period? I’m happy it is a rumour. It is just ordinary rumour. Nobody is planning to use the police and nobody has solicited the assistance of the police to assist in rigging election. There is nothing like that, it was a mere speculation.
How do you manage the NURTW crisis?
The problem with this union is that people would continue to shout wolf where there is none. Like they said last week two persons died. Where? Nobody has brought a case of death to me. The DPO (District Police Officer) of that area has not reported anybody being killed. The SSS ( State Security Service) that were on the ground did not come back to say so-so-so things happened. So, the problem is that people will continue to shout just to attract undue sympathy, just unnecessarily being sentimental for issues that were not true. We have been able to manage the NURTW crisis because we’ve been very neutral. We have been very focused. We did not allow anybody to put us under his armpit because that is what some of them want.
When the issues of court order reinstating Tokyo ( Alhaji Abdul Lateef Oluwatoki Akinsola) came, we followed the due process of the law. We told everybody that nobody will stampede the police into taking any action. We would follow the due process of the law. And that is exactly what we did. We did not because of the influence of anybody rush to do something that we come out to be illegal. That was why we were able to curtail their excesses. I want to assure the good people of Oyo State that we would not allow them to truncate the peace that we have been enjoying here. We are ready to deal ruthlessly with anybody that will want to cause any problem in the state.
Anybody that is aggrieved is free to go to court.
We have not been having clashes because of the way we have positioned our men. We have not allowed them to clash. One faction has been making noise that the police is in support of the other group because they have positioned their men in certain strategic places. We have posted and positioned our men in strategic places, hotspots where we know if anything is going to happen that is where they always start up. We have our men there.
That is the pro-active approach we have taken to make sure they will be seeing the law like this and say “this is the law, if we do anything contrary the law is going to deal with us” They will say “look, see police detachment here, if we make any trouble they are coming to apprehend us. We make sure people will not just rise up one day and start fomenting trouble.
Another approach adopted is by talking to them. In most cases when we call them, one group will come, the other group will not come. That not withstanding, we still send messages to them that if you have any problem go to court. That is the civilized way of dealing with dispute. Not violence.
Road blocks on the highways
The aim of putting road block is to make police visible but we know the limitations. The limitation, apart from being that it is a fixed, a static thing, not mobile, it looks primitive. It shows our level of policing and that is the level of our development.
To be mobile you need logistics. The challenge we are facing is non-availability of sufficient patrol vehicles. If we have enough patrol vehicles properly equipped with communication gadgets, you don’t need to station people at a particular point. All you need to do, since you have a lot of them, as one is going in one side, another is going on the other side. If there is any problem they will call. The patrol team will be able to radio for reinforcement anywhere nearby. For now that is not on the ground. We are still managing. That is not to say we don’t patrol vans. We have, but not sufficient enough to eliminate the issue of standing at a particular point.
Welfare of officers and men and training
There is an on-going reform programme. All these things are embedded in that programme. To the welfare aspect, the government has graciously improved the conditions of service of police personnel from the least police constable to the highest man. The issue of training is already being taken care of. About one thirds of our strength is now on promotion course.
That is part of the reform programme, to increase the level of professionalism in the force. All our training institutions would be refurbished some of them would be up-graded. Like our POLAC (Police Academy) there is a law that has been passed which has up-graded it to a degree awarding institution.
Our recruitment procedure too has been streamlined. The entry qualifications have been raised unlike what we have before. By 2015, we will have a police that will be comparable with police force in Europe and other parts of the world.
Review of activities
The level of security we are enjoying in the state is a testimony to efforts we have put in place to make sure we reduce crime. We have not had any incidence of robbery in the metropolis this year. No single incidence of robbery. No bank has been robbed.
The first attempt was somewhere around Monotan area (Ibadan) where they attempted to rob a bank, one of them was arrested. It was foiled. This year too, sometime in September there was an attempt to rob another bank in Ibadan. That attempt was also foiled. One of them was killed, one was arrested. Large quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered. They were pursued to Ogun State where the police there finally intercepted them and recovered tremendous amount of arms and ammunition from them.
On November 5, there was also a preemptive measure. The robbers coming to Ibadan to operate were arrested. Two general-purpose machine- guns were recovered from them. Seven AK-47 guns were also recovered. Four rolls of dynamites were recovered, 3,100 assorted ammunition were also recovered.
We have recovered more than 100 assorted AK-47 riffles this year alone, not to talk of locally made pistols, single-barreled guns that we have recovered. We have really made a lot of tremendous progress in our fight against crimes and criminality in the state.
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Salahud
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