UK-Trained Security Expert Advocates Independent Police

To promote effective polic
ing, a UK-trained security expert, Chief Rotimi Fadoju, has advocated an independent police free from political interference.
Fadoju told our  correspondent in Ibadan on Sunday that political interference negatively impacts on the professionalism of serving police officers.
He said.: “ If a governor for instance is the Chief Security Officer of a state, how will the Commissioner of Police refrain from undue influence in a matter the chief executive of a state is interested in?
“What kind of advice do you think a governor would give a trained police officer as the Chief Security Officer of a state?’’
He also cited the retirement of police officers, saying that the political order allows the political class to determine when an officer was due to leave the force irrespective of due date or professional competence.
“ Interference does not happen in the UK.
“ The Prime Minister cannot interfere in the appointment of a Commissioner of Police talk less of a superior interfering in the work of his subordinates, ’’ he said.
The security expert, who said that the country needed more than one million policemen, also advocated the establishment of a regional police.
Fadoju said that the UK government had put in place a regional police among which were the Metropolitan Police and the Lancashire Constabularies.
He also said independent and well-funded military and paramilitary security outfits would tackle crime and guarantee relative peace.
Fadoju further said that the security challenges facing any country were the products of the failures of the past.
“Our past leaders failed to open the canker worms in the past given the massive corruption within the system.
“It is so sad that some service chiefs in the country could send their officers to the war front with obsolete arms and sit back to share funds meant for acquiring new ones.
“Thank God things are now changing under President Muhammadu Buhari,’’ he said.
He called on Nigerians to stop lavish spending, saying this encourages criminality.
Speaking on the crisis in the Niger Delta region, Fadoju said there was need for the militants to shelve their suspicions by reposing confidence in the new administration
He said that the crisis was a product of the complicity of the political class, considering the cache of arms often displayed by the militants.
“How did they get anti- aircraft missiles and other sophisticated weapons? The fact remains that the political class is involved,’’ he said.
Fadoju, who called on government to engage the militants in constructive dialogue, also urged those who may be aggrieved to toe the path of peace.