By Yemi Akinsuyi
The National Chairman of the Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC, Alhaji Mogaji Ibraheem Olaniyan on Thursday urged Nigerians to stop criticizing the Police on the security challenges facing the country, saying that community effort would go a long way to downgrading insecurity in Nigeria.
Olaniyan, who spoke at the opening year ceremony of the Police Community Relations Committee, with the theme: ‘Strengthening The PCRC System For Optimum Service Delivery’, said all hands must to be on deck in this regard in the interest of the Nation.
According to him, “this opening year ceremony is designed for stakeholders to use the PCRC platform to suggest ways the community can support the police achieve a better service delivery to the community.
“Criticizing the police from the fence cannot solve our security challenges but a collective community resolve to address it can go a long way to downgrading insecurity in Nigeria.
“PCRC is calling for all hands to be on deck in this regard. In our letters of invitation, we requested for written submissions. Those who came with theirs can indicate so we start with them at the appropriate time”.
He spoke on the efforts being made by the Organization on the erection of its National Secretarial in Abuja, and assured that the project was going on as planned with the converted of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Dr Olukayode Adeolu Egbetokun
According to him, “we looked back at the events of 2024, which marked a turning point in the history of the PCRC. Not only did we turn 40 years in the onerous sacrificial service to the Nation and humanity, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun on May 9, 2024, during the grand finale of PCRC 40th anniversary celebration, acceded to our request to engage private developers on Joint Venture to commence work at the National Secretariat site of the PCRC in Utako, abandoned at DPC level since 2013 by the Ministry of Police Affairs due to budgetary constraints.
“The IGP kept to his words by ensuring we were linked with the appropriate police authorities for guidance. We are at the final stages of having a ground breaking ceremony and the project is named President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Community Policing Hub, in honour of Mr President for the choice our father and cerebral, internationally known top flight cop, Egbetokun, as IGP. When completed, the project will house facilities that will be named after Etim Inyang to immortalize the late IGP who established the PCRC and also IGP Egbetokun who brought the dream for a PCRC National Secretariat to fruition.
He explained that when completed, the National Secretariat will achieve three things for the PCRC, among others: strengthen the administration of PCRC and ensure more effective and better coordination of PCRC activities nationwide, end the years of embarrassing accommodation frustration suffered by members each time we come to Abuja for meeting, and secure the necessary and required environment for PCRC documents and greatly improve our secretarial activities. Needless to say that the overall result will increase the fervency and tempo of the ongoing police community integration by the PCRC.
Alhaji Olaniyan further gave an insight into the achievements of his tenure as the National Chairman of the Organization
According to him, ” in the two years of my administration, I have toured round 34 out of the 36 states of of Nigeria to assess PCRC presence and functionality. In the next 10 days, we shall be visiting Bayelsa, one of the two remaining states, to enable us take the right decisions on the PCRC there.
“We have made it clear to our people that the years of docile and rudderless PCRC are over. We have demonstrated this by expanding our scope of partnerships and reaching out to communities and remote villages to create Unit PCRC for inclusive police community collaboration. We have also crested different Units of PCRC at the national level to address specific needs assessment.
“In realization of the need to promote ethical standards within the PCRC, we established the PCRC Monitoring Unit, which was flagged off for operations by the IGP through the office if the Force PRO, March last year.
“The PCRC Monitoring Unit has since proved to be a great human and organizational asset for the association.
“We initiated 17 university scholarships to police orphans through one of our patrons, Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere of the Apostolic Fire Ministry, Port Harcourt. Another of our National Patrons that we are inducting today, Evang. Happiness Etuk, has more than 20 police children within the ages of 10 and 15 years on his TrisoNet Metaverse Community scholarship. It is to university level also.
“Working with the Diaspora Commission, we established the Diaspora PCRC to check the excesses and unguarded criticisms of Nigeria and the Nigeria Police by our brothers and sisters abroad. It is yielding positive results.”
In his Goodwill message, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, DIG
Hashim Argungu (rtd) said the training, themed “How to Strengthen the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) System for Optimum Service Delivery,” ” could not be timelier. In an era where trust and collaboration between law enforcement and communities are pivotal, the PCR C stands as a beacon of hope a bridge fostering mutual understanding and shared responsibility.
He stated that the Organization had long been instrumental in transforming policing through grassroot engagements, conflict resolution, and proactive crime prevention in Nigeria and pledged the unwavering support of the Commission to its initiatives that prioritized people-centered policing.
Speaking with newsmen AIG Zone 7 Police Zonal Headquarters, Bernard Igwe, who represented IGP Egbetokun, commended the activities of the Organization and promised more assistances for its operations.
