All police officers must declare their assets – IGP

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has said all police officer in the country must declare their assets.

This, according to him, is necessary in order to rid the Nigerian Police Force of corruption.

“Every police officer must declare their assets,” he said at Force Headquarters in Abuja during a courtesy call on him by members of Nigerians Unite Against Terror, a civil rights organisation on Friday.

The IGP warned police officers against violating their code of conduct, stressing that his administration would not spare them.

The IGP said, “We are going to be very tough on our police officers who go outside our code of conduct. When I took over and told people that I am declaring my assets, it looked surprising, people took it as if I was doing something magical but that is what the law says. You cannot work without declaring your assets.

“You must declare your assets and as policemen we are the ones checking the vices, so we cannot be part of those that are increasing the vices in the society and I still stand by my word.

“I have declared my assets even before and after I became IG of police because it is a constitutional requirement. I believe every police officer should do that.

“What kills most Nigerians is lack of contentment; you will see somebody amassing wealth that he and even his grandchildren do not need throughout their life time. I don’t know what drives people like that. For me, I believe that with contentment, you will have peace of mind.”

Idris promised to set up a special committee comprising the police and members of the civil society organisations to develop a strategy on how to improve the image of the police.

He said, “We need to sit down and set up a panel; we are going to start a committee to interface on how to utilise our human resource because it is very important.

It is good people hear from the CSOs who are not policemen. People should hear from you on how the public now see the police.

“People should give us the opportunity to prove ourselves; they will take it more serious from you.”

Idris called on the public to stop denigrating the police whose duty is to protect lives and properties.

He said when he assumed duty as IGP, he promised to be guided by two major principles and police core values, in line with international best practices and democratic policing.

“The principles are that the police should be humane, that we should respect other people; and we should not look at people’s faces before we can apply the law. The law covers everybody, whether you are rich or poor,” he said.