25th June, 2015
The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase, on Wednesday urged the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to collaborate with the Police to strengthen the campaign against corruption.
Arase made the call in Abuja when he visited the ICPC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta.
He identified staff training as a major area of collaboration.
“All along, there have been areas where we have been able to cooperate. And all I have come to seek is further cooperation to ensure that we are able to drive our anti-corruption crusade to its logical conclusion.
“And one of the areas I feel we can further cement our relationship is if we are able to encourage joint training in our various training institutions. It is a very veritable ground for our operatives to train together because if they train together, then they get to know themselves better.”
Arase said that since he assumed duty, he had continued to work assiduously to change the perception of Nigerians about the police force.
According to him, his administration has adopted a policy that will enable the police to reverse the trend.
He added that the removal of road blocks from the nation’s highways was one of the steps taken to reverse the trend.
The inspector-general said that the force had introduced motorised patrol and a technical platform where members of the public could effectively interact with the police.
He said that the platform was created to enable Nigerians to interact with the police while monitoring the conduct of its men on the highways.
Responding, Nta expressed appreciation for the visit and said that ICPC would do all it could to make sure that the collaboration was a success.
He said that the emergence of Arase as IG had led to tremendous transformations that had been of benefit to Nigerians.
Nta said: “The case tracking analysis and zero tolerance to police-citizens interface, initiatives of the police boss are steps in the right direction to change the perception of Nigerians about the police.”
He said that over the years, ICPC had relied extensively on police formations across the country during its investigations.