The Deputy Inspector General of Police [DIG] in charge of Training and Development, Mr Emmanuel Inyang, on Wednesday said arrangements have been made to enable police personnel own residential houses before retirement.
Inyang was quoted in a statement to have said that the scheme, which had since taken off, was a collaboration between the Nigeria Police Force Cooperative Society, Federal Mortgage Bank and private developers.
The DIG made the remark in Sokoto at the opening of a one week workshop on human rights organised for officers of Sokoto State Police Command.
In the statement signed by Abdulkadir Ibrahim, Media Focal Person of the Human Rights Training Programme, Inyang added that the houses would be provided on owner-occupier basis.
He reiterated that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has placed emphasis on the welfare of police personnel in order to enhance their productivity.
The DIG stressed that the police high command had facilitated training and re-training of policemen, their promotion and the provision of working materials.
He assured that recent mass promotion in the force, that cut across all cadres, would continue.
”The human rights training workshop is aimed at providing a platform to reach out to men and officers of the force on the need for the promotion and protection of human rights in the discharge of their duties,” he said.
Inyang explained that the training would provide the participants with skills, knowledge and imbue in them the right attitude to discharge their duties in line with the law and best human right practice.
”The programme is impacting positively on the force as cases of victimization, brutalization, torture and other forms of human rights violations and abuses by officers and men of the force have reduced to the barest minimum.
” I am appealing to the members of the public to cooperate and assist the police in its assigned task of protection of life and property, detection and prevention of crime as well as the maintenance of law and order,” the DIG said.
Earlier, the Executive Director, Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, Mr Yinka Lawal said in a message that the training was “aimed at mainstreaming human rights principles into the operations and duties of the force.
”This is to reduce the incidences of human rights violations by officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force.”
The News Agency of Nigeria [NAN] reports that the human rights training is being supported by German Corporation for International Cooperation, Swiss Government Department of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and UN Office on Drugs and Crime.(NAN)