The Police High Command said that state governors are aware of the roadblocks mounted by its personnel either on major highways or some intercity roads in their respective locations. It also said that Nigerians abroad are trooping into the country to enjoy Christmas in their respective communities sequel to improved security situation in every nook and cranny of the country.
The spokesman of the force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, stated this while fielding questions from journalists during a joint press briefing of all spokesmen of all security agencies held at the Office of the National Security Adviser, Abuja.
The briefing, organised by the Strategic Communications Interagency Policy Committee (SCIPC) of the ONSA led by the Director of Legal Services, Zakari Mijinyawa, had representatives of military, fire service, FRSC, among others in attendance. Reacting to fears of some people over kidnapping incidents on major highways particularly in the South East, Adejobi said the force had deployed to major highways in order to forestall any of such occurrence.
“Let me say that we have done strategic deployment, and our deployment across the country is not to intimidate anybody, it is for us to make sure that all our routes, major highways and communities are safe.
“Let me clarify that we don’t have roadblocks in Nigeria, we have stop-and-search points, nipping points, and others. Where you see roadblocks, that is zigzag movement – be it log of wood, drums and everything, must have been at the request of the governor of that state.
“No command will form any roadblocks without the consent of the governor of that state. There are some states where the governors have actually requested or sought permission of the IGP to have such roadblocks,” he said.
The force spokesman said that the senior officers in the police had never sent any officer on patrol to make money for them, saying Nigerians should report such officers via publicised headlines if caught while misbehaving.
He added, “Generally across the country, we have stop-and-search points across, and we’ll continue to have such stop-and-search points for now until we have a system that is better, where we will not have men stopping vehicles and checking your papers, where we have authorised patrol, when cameras will be monitoring our highways.
“But now, for our own good, and for the good of our people, plying all these routes. But where we have issues with the men, at these various points, we have rolled out our helplines. We have rolled out our complaint response platforms and numbers. Let us make use of them.
“I’ve not seen any senior man from any agency, particularly in the police, that we muster his name in the name of money. Apart from Customs that is for revenue, I’ve not seen any that will say go and raise N10 million for me as you’re going to your point of duty, I’ve not seen it.”
