WE’VE USED TECHNOLOGY TO TRACK FRAUDSTERS – CP ALABI
By Okosun Dennis
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Sylvester Alabi has disclosed how the use of technology has assisted the police force to track fraudsters, saying it has helped to mitigate the occurrences of crimes in the state.
He added that the police have a very superb platform that has assisted them in policing the country.
Speaking to our correspondent after receiving an award as the NAOSNP Best Commissioner of Police, which was organised by the National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP) in Lagos, he solicited citizens’ support to make the business of policing less laborious.
“Policing is everybody’s business. One of our policy thrusts is intelligence community policing and to effectively do that, we must involve the citizens.
“They must be galvanised to support the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies to ensure the security of lives and properties.
“The community must be involved and that is why we are growing community partnership and community engagement through regular meetings with Divisional Police Officers and Area Commanders since the police can’t do it alone. Such an interface enhances intelligence and information sharing.
“It is when we are able to galvanise them to work with us, we can rest assured that our community is safe and secured. We can’t work in isolation from members of the community.
While assuring members of the public to volunteer information and those who volunteered information to police would have their identity protected with utmost confidentiality, CP Alabi allays their fears not to be afraid about divulging their identity.
“Any information or intelligence reports given to the police would be treated with the utmost confidentiality. Gone are those days people’s identities were revealed.
“Nobody does that again and when you do that, it becomes counter-productive and we wouldn’t benefit from it. We encourage people to give us information and intelligence.
“The grassroots’ people know who is who as police can’t be everywhere and that is why we rely on them in all our ungoverned places to assist the police to police those areas by sharing information and intelligence.
Also speaking at the conference, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Badinson Security Services, Mr. Matthew Ibadin, advocated for an inter-agency academy that would further cement a harmonious relationship that would promote stronger cohesion among the security agencies.
He commended NAOSNP for their ingenuity to have organised such a far-reaching security conference, adding that the theme was apt and timely considering the security problems the country has been contending with in recent times.
The well-attended conference had other awardees including Major General Ike Nwachukwu (retd), Former Minister of External Affairs who bagged NAOSNP Lifetime Achievement award; NSCDC Commandant Eweka Okoro – Lagos State Command who bagged NAOSNP State Commandant of the year and Corps Commander Olusegun Ogungbemide – Sector Commander, FRSC Lagos Sector Commander, who won NAOSNP Sector Commander of the year as well as Prince (Dr.) Ifalade Oyekan – GM, LNSA, NAOSNP Security Agency Personality of the year.
