IGP Adamu: One Year Of Focused Leadership

IGP Adamu: One Year Of Focused Leadership

Prior to January 15, 2019, the name Mohammed Abubakar Adamu rang little or no bell amongst Nigerians. One year on, the story has changed as almost every household in the country is familiar with not just the name but also the face of the Inspector-General of Police, M.A. Adamu, NPM, mni. But then, who is Mohammed Abubakar Adamu? And how well has he fared in the task of policing Nigeria within his one year in office as the 20th indigenous Inspector-General of Police?

​While many police officers are fit for employment only in Nigeria, Adamu is eminently qualified for employment as a law enforcement officer anywhere in the world. In addition to his vast policing experience within Nigeria, he also has in his kitty robust international law enforcement experience garnered whilst he was on secondment to the International Criminal Police Secretariat, Lyon France between 1997 and 2002. Whilst at the INTERPOL, he served as a specialised officer on Economic and Financial Crimes, a position he held creditably well, leading to his numerous promotions and commendations, culminating in his appointment as a full-fledged Director in-charge of the African sub-Directorate at the same secretariat. Today, he holds the record as the first ever African to be made a director in the over 82-year history of INTERPOL. IGP Adamu has led several criminal investigations for Nigeria in the UK, the USA, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. To make him perfectly global, he, in addition to speaking Hausa and other Nigerian languages, speaks English and French languages fluently.

Adamu holds a B.Sc (Hons) degree in Geography from the Ahmadu Bello University (1983) and a Master’s degree in International Criminal Justice System from the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom (2018). He is a proud alumnus of the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Plateau State where he graduated as a member of the Senior Executive Course 38 in 2017. In recognition of his international professional exposure, the Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu awarded the IGP an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree in International Relations. Other courses he has attended include Advanced Detective Course at the Police Staff College, Jos; Financial Crimes Course at the International Training Institute of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington DC; Criminal Analysis Course at the Ecole National Seperieure de la Police, Saint Cyr Au Mont dor, Lyon, France; Senior Management Development and Planning Course, and the Staff Assessment Course both at the Interpol Headquarters in Lyon, France.

It is a well-known fact that no Police Force can function optimally without modern tools for crime prevention and detection especially state-of-the-art communication and database management. This has made IGP Adamu champion the cause of providing for the Nigeria Police Force a modern Joint Command and Control Centre, a centre that enables the Force to get live feeds from special surveillance vehicles strategically positioned at scenes of incidents anywhere in the country. In addition to this, all security agencies in the country have representation at the JCC and work in harmony to ensure a crime free country. Also, the first of its kind Nigeria Police Force Crime and Incident Database was established within one year of the IGP in office. Now, not only will criminals be profiled and run through the database during subsequent arrests, employers can do thorough background checks of would-be employees. Furthermore, Adamu purchased for the Force 217 tactical vehicles with advanced capabilities for surveillance, crime fighting and detection, and crowd management. The new patrol vehicles can be described as smart police vehicles with on-the-move CCTV cameras. All these have further enhanced the capacity of the Force, thereby boosting the morale of the workforce.

On April 5, 2019, shortly after assuming office, Adamu launched a security exercise code-named Operation Puff Adder – a special proactive and intelligence-driven police operation designed at reclaiming the landscape from criminals through the massive deployment of well-trained, well-equipped, and well-motivated personnel and operational assets especially in the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway, Kogi, Katsina, Niger and Zamfara States. In the past one year, Operation Puff Adder, supported by other tactical police departments such as the Intelligence Response Team, Special Tactical Squad, Police Mobile Force, Counter Terrorism Unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad, carried out major police operations aimed at checking the activities of violent criminals. In the year under review, these concerted efforts have led to the arrest of over 1,527 kidnappers, 2,627 armed robbers, 758 murder suspects and 1,621 cultists; recovery of over 2,037 assorted firearms, rescue of 945 kidnap victims and recovery of 1,662 stolen vehicles. Now, there is evident respite on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway while Zamfara State which had hitherto become a killing field has regained its lost glory as a peaceful state.

The crime rate across the country has been stabilised, while the IGP is currently working with other stakeholders and security agencies to further improve on security within Nigeria.

Under his tenure, Adamu initiated and implemented an initiative aimed at mopping up illegal weapons across the country. This initiative paid off on May 25, 2019 with the arrest of a notorious transnational firearms/ammunition smuggling syndicate in Oyo State and the recovery of 6,000 rounds of AK47 ammunition and several AK47 rifles. Several other arms smuggling syndicates were later smashed by the police.

In the year under review, a total of 2,037 sophisticated firearms and two rocket launchers were recovered from criminal elements; while 21,870 rounds of live ammunition were also recovered across the country.

The IGP came on board a few weeks to the February 16, 2019 general election. Due to the proximity between the time of appointment and the date for the elections, cynics and doomsayers doubted his ability to deliver on the successful policing of the electoral process. In his inaugural speech, however, he promised to ‘work with the Independent National Electoral Commission and sister security agencies in guaranteeing a peaceful and secure space for all political parties and the citizens to freely exercise their electoral rights.’ He equally assured the nation of the determination of the Force to play its role ‘fairly but firmly towards guaranteeing a peaceful electoral process and a credible outcome.’ He promised to provide a level-playing field for all political parties and their candidates during the elections. He did exactly that. The simplest and best way to sum up his performance at the elections is to say, he lived up to every of his words!

Perhaps, no one believes in community policing more than IGP Adamu. In his determination to fully engage the people in the successful policing of the country, he worked with state governors and other stakeholders to organise “regional” security summits across the different geopolitical zones in the country and personally assessed security deployments in the areas visited. So far, the summit has been successfully held in four geopolitical zones while the South-East and North-Central’s will hold anytime soon. The IGP is equally implementing the Community Policing Concept which involves the engagement of 40,000 citizens in the interim as Community Policing Officers to perform low-risk and non-sensitive law enforcement functions.

 This is to be followed by a soon-to-be-rolled-out School Visitation Programme – an initiative aimed at meeting with primary and secondary school pupils/students and giving them early warnings on the dangers of crime. It is hoped that this strategy will cut the supply chain of would-be criminals, and help nurture our youths from the cradle.