Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba, on Wednesday, warned policemen never to allow hoodlums wielding guns, sticks and machetes invade their stations.
Baba issued this warning at the Lagos Police Command headquarters in Ikeja during his maiden visit to the state.
Read Also: Breaking: Police Council Confirms Baba As IGP
He promised to kit them with anti-riot equipment, arms and ammunition as well as other weapons needed for effective policing through the Police Trust Fund (PTF).
Baba urged senior officers to restore discipline to the service.
He said: “When officers serving under you display courage, zeal and commitment, you need to encourage them. On the other hand, those who commit disciplinary offences must be punished so that other will see it as deterrence.
“The service can no longer tolerate acts of indiscipline, which is well known to us. We must do the needful to be able to carry on with our job. One area that we need to improve on is the issue of crowd control, riots, so that you would go back with the agreed or accepted norms of discharging this responsibility.
Read Also: June 12: IGP Reads Riot Act to AIGs, CPs, Maintain Roadblock Ban
“You must also control the use of firearms. As commanders, you need to lecture your men and remind them when issuing rifles of the kind of situations they are to use them. You must also guard against the rifles being snatched or being carelessly handled.
“We must also be civil in the discharge of our responsibilities at all times. Never again should we allow our stations and our personnel to be sacked by hoodlums wielding guns, sticks and machetes to the extent that we would not be able to handle situations that can easily be handled because of lack of professionalism or cowardice.
“We must do in-house training. We must remind ourselves of the laws, the powers in the laws that we have and how we can discharge them.”