The Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, on Wednesday met with zonal assistant inspectors general of police and commissioners of police, to review security challenges in the country.
Speaking before the meeting went into a closed door session, Abubakar said the challenges in each state and zone would be reviewed so as to devise strategies and methodologies to tackle them.
“Today (Wednesday), we are going to review most of these security challenges and situations in each of the zones and command one after the other.
“Crime and criminality that have to do with terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, internal conflicts and other heinous crimes that have to do with border crises, whether internal or international borders will all be looked into.
“The achievements and successes of the state of emergency in the North East, the ongoing investigation into cases of terrorism and other important cases in the country will also be reviewed.’’
The inspector-general explained that the monthly meeting with the senior officers did not hold in the last couple of months because of the current security challenges.
He said this was to allow state commissioners of police and zonal AIGs to adopt measures to combat challenges in their respective jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, Abubakar said the police had concluded plans to set up a peacekeeping institute in the country.
He announced this when Mr Said Djinnit, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and Head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), paid him a visit.
He said the institute would be located in Abuja and would be saddled with the responsibility of training and preparing police officers for regional, continental and global peacekeeping operations.
“The institute will also train police officers on conflict resolution, disaster management, humanitarian support operations and global best practices in policing,’’ he added.
Abubakar said the institute would be opened to police personnel from neighbouring countries.
Responding, Djinnit described Nigeria as an important troops contributing country to the UN, AU and ECOWAS peace support missions.
He commended the police for its commitment to peacekeeping efforts and assured it of continued support of the UN.
The police on Monday started the deployment of 140 personnel to Mali in support of the ECOWAS and Africa Union-led peace initiative in the country.