By Fayil Friday, Abuja
As part of efforts to deliver on its promise to improve internal security, Nigeria will consider adopting some community policing and safe-city models of the Israeli Police in view of the obvious similarities between it and the Nigeria Police Force.
[leadershipnigeria.com] The Minister of Police Affairs, Dr Ibrahim Yakubu Lame, said this when he led a delegation to meet with the Israeli Minister of public security, Mr Yitzhak Aharonovitch in Tel Aviv.
The minister, who was accompanied by the Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, said Nigeria acknowledged the high-level of competence of the Israel police and hopes that some co-operation between the two countries can impact positively on Nigeria’s current rudimentary capacity.
According to Lame, though Nigeria has its unique challenges such as the Niger Delta militancy, armed robberies, communal conflicts and the recent emergence of kidnap-for-ransom incidents, such models can be adapted to meet these challenges.
He told the Israeli minister that Nigeria gives priority to the improvement of internal security by placing emphasis on developing the effectiveness of its police force. This, he said, is being done through the adoption of strategies such as police reforms, community policing.
On their mission, Lame told the Israeli officials that he was in Israel in company of the Inspector-General of Police to, among other things, under-study the successes and challenges of implementing community policing and intelligence-led policing strategies as practised by Israel and gain a deeper understanding of the knowledge and skills required for the deployment of technology to fight crime and combat other safety and security challenges.
He said the visit would enable them study the deployment of technology to support the implementation of Nigeria’s Seven City Crime Prevention and Control Strategy and hoped it would help consolidate the relationship between Nigeria and Israel.
The Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, said as security officials, they had realised the pressing need to develop criminal intelligence, as police visibility and deterrence is no longer enough to fight crime. The police, according to him, requires the expertise to gather information, analyze the data to create the intelligence that would be used to combat crime, pre-empt an attack or arrest.
He said the team was interested in the use and application of technology and resources to facilitate investigation, manage exhibits, enhance surveillance capability and hoped the Israeli authorities would collaborate with Nigeria in this regard.
In his response, the Israeli Minister of Public Security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, informed the delegation that Israel had one national police force with emphasis on fighting terrorist activities at the expense of traditional policing which is informed by their training and experience in terror activities, bomb disposal, forensics and modern technology to fight crime.
He said Israel has a border police that is also involved in maintaining internal security through the prevention and control of terrorist activities while the army does not deal with internal crime.
He informed the delegation that his country had embraced the Safe City Project which has been rolled out in twelve cities and involves partnerships with other agencies, city mayors and co-ordinated by the ministry.
The project, he said, involves the deployment of close circuit television in the cities and their management done through a command and control centre.
According to the Public Security Minister, the aim of the project which is similar to the one being embarked upon by Nigeria, is to bring down the crime rate and create a safety in the selected cities and that more will be included this year, considering the level of success it has recorded. He promised to assist the Nigerian authorities in the execution of the Seven City Project.
Among places visited by the Police Affairs Minister and his delegation were the National Headquarters of the Israel Police, the Israel Police CCTV Command and Control Center in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel Military Industries (IMI), Israel Weapons Industries (IWI), Motorola Israel Limited, Safe City – Ashkelon and the Septier Company where they were introduced to the Septier Location Tracking Solution which intercepts, collects, analyzes and retains location data arriving from cellular and pocket-based networks. The system, according to Dr Lame, will be useful to Nigeria in controlling the worrisome cases of kidnap-for-ransome.
