New Police IG Adamu speaks, promises change of strategy

The new acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has said he will adopt a fresh strategy to tackle the insecurity challenges facing Nigeria.

The new police chief said this Tuesday while speaking with State House correspondents after he was decorated with his new rank by President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Mr Adamu, who thanked Mr Buhari for appointing him, said he knew that there were security challenges to be tackled in the country.

”Issues of kidnapping, abduction and other security challenges. From the strategies put in place by the former IGP, we will restrategise and make sure that we tackle these challenges squarely,” he said.

Mr Adamu also spoke about the forthcoming general elections and said adequate arrangements have already been made by his predecessor to make sure that free and fair and credible elections take place in Nigeria.

”We are going to build upon the strategies put in place to make sure that we have hitch-free elections in the country,” he said.

The new IG also assured political parties participating in the election that as professionals, the police “are going to stick by the rules, we are going to do the right thing”.

”We will not go outside the ethics of our job to do things that are untoward. Everybody will be given level-playing ground to play his or her politics, ” he said.

The former IG, Ibrahim Idris, who also spoke briefly, advised his successor to go round the whole country and “adopt measures to ensure that the Nigerian Police Force give maximum protection to lives and property”.

The new chief, Mr Adamu, hails from Lafia, Nasarawa State, and holds a bachelors in Geography.

He enlisted into the police on February 1, 1986, as a Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police.

He attended senior officer courses on law enforcement, crime prevention, control and management within and outside Nigeria.

Before his appointment Tuesday, he was a directing staff at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Plateau State.

He was also a commissioner of police in Ekiti and Enugu States and also Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 5 Police Command Headquarters, Benin, Edo State.