The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday stated that no state in the federation has invested in equipping the Police has Osun has done in the last five years.
This was even as the newly posted Commissioner of Police, Osun state command, Mr. Kola Sodipo noted that the police in Nigeria cannot succeed without community policing.
Aregbesola stated this while playing host to the new Commissioner of Police and the out-going Commissioner, Mr. Abubakar Marafa who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House in Osogbo.
The governor added that Osun is committed to ensuring that the Police and other security agencies are given maximum and adequate support so as to protect lives and property as well as maintain peace and security.
He noted that police are the extension of civil society and the most visible agents that protect the people against any security threat.
The governor called on the new Commissioner of Police to maintain strict professionalism, and enjoin his officers and men to uphold ethics, rules and regulations of policing.
He said, “In the last five years of my administration in Osun, no state has invested in support of police as this state has done.
“We have demonstrated this support in the area of procurement of requisite gadgets for effective policing as well as remunerating officers and men of the state command.
“As the agency of government that is most visible to the society, we must see police as an extension of ourselves so that we can live peacefully without threat to our lives and property.
“The only way that the police can return the gesture of government is to uphold the ethics of professionalism and the management of men and officers of the force.” he said.
He commended the out-going Police Commissioner for his quick response and capacity to checkmate crisis before it happens.
Aregbesola added that throughout the tenure of Mararfa as the boss of the state Police Command, no single case of incident armed robbery was recorded, saying that virtually all other Commissioners of Police that have served in the state left indelible marks as a professinal.
In his response, the new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kola Sodipo stressed that he will do his best to keep the state secured and devoid of criminal activities.
While seeking the cooperation of government and people of the state, he noted that police can not succeed without the cooperation of the people within the community, he promised to leave the state better and peaceful than his predecessors left it.
According to him, “I want to do better than what Mararfa has done, I will do as much to keep the state peaceful, I will make use of community police, all over the world the police can not succeed without community police.
“If other civilised nations like the United States and the United Kingdom can be making use of community police, our country can not be an exception in the use of community policing”. The police boss emphasised.
In his remarks, the out-gone Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abubakar Marafa thanked the governor, Osun executive council, the judiciary, Osun monarchs and journalists for their maximum cooperation when he was at the helms of affairs in the state.
He stated that though there are financial itches here and there in the state but the state will put it behind and move on to glory.
