The Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Dr Olukayode Egbetokun, has said that the Nigeria Police secured 35,604 convictions out of a total of 128,988 criminal cases prosecuted in 10 months.
Egbetokun diaclosed this on Monday in Abuja at the opening of a workshop on enhancing professionalism and standardisation in criminal investigation, organised for heads of police investigating/intelligence units.
“Available records in our Force Legal Office shows that your investigative prowess, commitment to duty and resilience have resulted in 35,604 convictions from 128,988 criminal cases charged to court across the country.
“The record shows that 1,782 of the cases were on appeal with 52,601 others, still undergoing trial since the beginning of this year to date,”he said.
According to him, your teams supported by our various tactical units and others recovered 1,877 arms and 22,585 ammunitions with several kidnap victims rescued.
He said the rescued kidnap victims included the notable cases of 20 medical students in Benue and students of Confluence University in Kogi.
“We did not forget the successful rescue of several minors from their abductors, notably the two children aged between 9 and 11 years, who were held captive for many months before our brave officers secured their freedom.
“I commend you for these outstanding achievements and assure you of the force leadership’s commitment to modernising the force through cutting-edge investigative equipment and capacity-building training.
“We will continue to motivate you to excel by recognising and rewarding exceptional performance. At our next award and commendation ceremony, more categories will be dedicated to the Investigation and Intelligence Departments,”he said.
According to him, as we celebrate your successes, we must address recent performance gaps, as public servants, you are expected to demonstrate expertise and professionalism at all times.
He said that mistakes could embarrass the force and undermine public trust.
“Regrettably, apart from human errors, which are sometimes not avoidable, it has been observed that some unprofessional officers have compromised the Investigation Department’s integrity.
“These individuals mishandle cases due to incompetence or consideration for personal gains, tarnishing the Force’s image and eroding public confidence.
“To address this, we are taking urgent steps to weed out unprofessional officers and strengthen our Investigation and Intelligence Departments,”he said.
Egbetokun said the force would immediately, commence the deployment of officers into and out of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and other investigative units strictly on the principle of mobilisation and demobilisation.
He said the idea was to enhance accountability and professionalism, effective immediately,
The I-G said the approach was to ensure that only officers who have been vetted and adequately trained were mobilised into investigative roles.
He said that demobilisation would follow a structured process, where officers would be withdrawn after their assignments to ensure a rotation that prevents the development of corrupt practices or entrenchment in certain roles.
Egbetokun said the approach was designed to maintain a high level of operational integrity and impartiality in criminal investigations across the Force. (NAN)
