.Says drones, helicopters needed to locate criminals
The Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of FCID, Abuja and the Coordinating DIG of South-West geo-political zone, Abiodun Alabi, has said that technological equipment, such as drones and helicopters, is very necessary to end kidnappings in the South-West.
Alabi, who spoke, yesterday, during a familiarisation tour of the Ekiti Police Command in Ado-Ekiti, urged South-West governors to help provide technological equipment to help deal with kidnappers before they manifest their criminal intentions.
He said: “Gadgets like drones can provide intelligence to locate criminals. Instead of chasing the criminal elements, we can deal with them before they manifest their criminal intentions.
“We have helicopters but they are few and cannot go around the 36 states and the FCT. It is part of the problem we are facing. There is no reason why each state command cannot have a helicopter. It is going to be capital-intensive to get those numbers of helicopters but that is the way forward. We will continue to work on that. We also encourage the state governments to partner with us to provide needed equipment to deal with criminality.”
Alabi said: “I want to appeal to our officers that the only way you can earn the trust and confidence of the people is by treating them as human beings. I am an advocate of human rights. I abhor completely any breach of human rights.”
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, Akinwale Adeniran, has urged the police leadership to address some challenges facing the command to enable the police to perform better, saying that apart from inadequate manpower and logistics, there is problem of incessant transfer of personnel out of the command.
“In this way, I wish to make a passionate appeal to the DIG to help in stemming the tide. The command needs more hands than the strength at its disposal to sustain the peace being witnessed in the state and even do better,” he said.
