“Why Criminals Jettisoned Other Crimes for Kidnapping” Police Spokesperson Don Awunah

Donald N. Awunah, fsi, is a seasoned security officer both in academic credentials and natural ability. A Deputy Commissioner of Police, D.C.P and Force Public Relation Officer, F.P.R.O, Don Awunah bagged a B.A degree in Philosophy from the prestigious University of Lagos in 1984. The gallant image maker of the Nigerian Police Force, N.P.F is also an alumnus of many distinguished academic institutions, such as University of Ilorin, Ilorin (2014-2015), Institute of Security Studies, Abuja (2014), Benue State University, Makurdi (2009-2010, 1995-1996), Federal Polytechnic, Ida (1989-1990), School of Basic Studies, Ugbokolo (1978-1980), Padopads Harmony Secondary School, Makurdi (1973-1978), Ladi-Lak Primary School, Yaba, Lagos (1969-1973) and St. Mathias Primary School, Ogwashi-Uku, Delta (1968-1969).

The humble but intelligent Force spokesperson has the following qualifications to his profile; M.A in International Relations and Strategic Studies in 2010, ADPM in 1996 and Certificate in Mass Communication in 1990.

Besides his core academic trainings and attainments, DCP Donald attended numerous Professional Police Courses within and outside the country namely: National Security Training in Israel (2015), UNODC Seminar for Criminal Justice Practitioners on the implementation of UN Convention Against Trans-national Organized Crime in Abuja (2002), Community Policing Training, Huston, USA (2007), Police Leadership and Management – Community Policing, Scottish Police College, Scotland (2003), Study Tour of England and Scotland Police Formations – Community Policing (2003), Crime Prevention: Trans-national Organised Crime – Unafei, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan (2000) and Advanced Detective Course (1991).

He also has the following working experience; A member of the Nigeria Police Contingent to the UN Peace Keeping Mission in East-Timor (UNMIT) between (2008 – 2009) where he served as the UN Police Spokesperson. He served in various capacities in the Force; he was 2i/c Special Fraud Unit, FCID Abuja (2001), Assistant Commissioner of Police, Management Service (2009-2010), Area Commander, Owerri Area Command, Imo State (2010-2011), Assistant Commissioner of Police, CID ‘D’ Department, Akwa-Ibom State (2011-2013), Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Edo State (2014) and Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge Homicide, FCIID (2014).

He has also acquired proven skills in Police Public Relations and Extensive knowledge in detective and investigative work.

A member of various professional bodies, among which are the Fellow, Institute of Security Studies (fsi), Fellow, Institute of Corporate Administration and Member, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), DCP Don Awunah, a lover of sports, Reading, News Hunting and Man’O’ War Activities, is happily married with children.

SECURITY MONITOR’s team led by its Managing Editor ‘Wale Abideen, Head of Abuja Operations Oru Leonard and Abuja Correspondent Daudu Hulleji was received warmly by the F.P.R.O recently at the Louis Edet House, Abuja where he sheds more lights on the determination of the Inspector General of Police, I.G.P Ibrahim K. Idris to engage the force in an international best practice style of policing. DCP Don as fondly called also explains why the current leadership of the force intends to improve the welfare of its workforce with a deliberate attempt to boost the morale of the ranks and file through various welfare schemes. He however explains how the police is tackling the scourge of insecurity and why criminals abandoned other crimes to venture into kidnapping. The interview turns out to be highly informative and inciting, please enjoy it…

DO YOU CONSIDER RELATING WITH THE MEDIA A TASKY JOB?

Police is an example of a micro society. You see, the police is in the society and the society is in the police. Also, mass media is a critical component of policing all over the world because sometimes the public perception is one of the measures to determine performance of the force. You get to know what the public think about you through the mass media. So, the media is an active partner of the policing. All organizations police inclusive must corporate and collaborate with the media because it’s impact on the profession positively and it helps in the growth and development of feedback mechanism.

AS THE MOUTH PIECE AND IMAGE MAKER OF THE POLICE, WHAT CAN YOU DESCRIBE AS THE CARDINAL TRUST OF THE CURRENT INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE?

We must be very careful about cardinal trust. When you based everything on cardinal trust you are trying to politicize The Force because the word Cardinal Trust is a borrowed word from the political arena. Policing is about public safety and protection of lives and properties. Policing is a doing thing and not about talking. As for the current leadership in the force led by I.G.P Ibrahim Idris the Nigerian Police Force tends to pursue its mandate with the international best practices of policing with integrity. The I.G.P has reiterated that police must work within the democratic constitution =there must be what we call democratically policing system. The Police under the leadership of the current I.G.P will ensure that the rule of law prevails in its actions and activities. We mean police that respect diversity, police that has compassion, police that has courage, police that respect diversity, police whose ethos is on professionalism. We urge Nigerians to watch out for a police that is people oriented, a police that has underlined factor of serving, a police that shuns corruption, a police that believes in service and not servitude, a police that believes in the principles of community policing, police that brings people together to solving problems so that the quality of the life of the people would improve but the police must do it in conjunction and collaboration with every sector of the society including the people. The holistic concept of policing that the current I.G.P brought has a lot to do with the present political dispensation of change. So, there is a new dimension, a paradigm shift, it is a drastic departure from the traditional concept. We are working on pragmatic concept proactive policing and partnership that will make Nigeria saves and secured.

SHORTLY AFTER THE APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW I.G.P, HE TALKED ABOUT ASSETS DECLARATION OF SENIOR OFFICERS, ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT IT?

Of course, we have been declaring our assets. I have I declared mine. The IG was the first to declare his assets. Lots of our personnel have done that too. People should go and do what is required by the law. We are public servants; we are to declare our assets according to the dictates of the law. These are the new things that are coming to play under the current police leadership.

The I.G.P has set up different squads which take care of corruption within and outside the policing system. When we talk about corruption we should not limit it to the point of view of exchanging money. The way you deliver your services , if you don’t deliver it well can automatically depicts corruption and corruption can also be categorize into two aspects; the individual corruption and the corporate corporation. So, when we look at corruption at the inherited prejudice of 20 naira, 40 naira, 50 naira or so, it has gone beyond that. It is an international problem and it must be tacked squarely.

NIGERIAN POLICE WELFARE PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE RELATIVELY POOR CONSIDERING THE ENORMOUS TASK OF SECURING LIVES AND PROPERTIES. WHAT IS THE PRESENT LEADERSHIP OF THE FORCE DOING ABOUT THE WELFARE OF ITS WORKFORCE?

When you want someone to perform without motivation, without good reward system you’ll end up getting a little result. If you give monkey reward you get a monkey job. Police are not well paid that is the true. But Police pay is within the concept of the federal salary structure system. It is left for you people who are benefitting from the police service to clamor for an improved pay package for the police. That notwithstanding, the I.G is looking beyond that, in the area of housing, the IG wants to make sure that the police has houses they can continue to live in even after their service . We are trying to partner with private developers so that we can have houses that are affordable where officers can live in and not shanties. Such that after service you can retire and say I have serve my country and you can look back and thank the country that you have a roof over your head. Also the rank and file, which incidentally are the face of the police, the chunk of police job is done within the ambit of the rank and file so that is why the I.G is shifting attention from upper echelon to the members of the rank and file hence we have discovered they are the people doing the job in daily basis,

THERE IS INCREASED INSECURITY CHALLENGES IN THE COUNTRY, KIDNAPPING FOR RANSOM AND SO ON (CUTS IN)

Kidnapping for ransom is a very complex criminal activity because evidently from our investigations most of these kidnappings for ransom have an insider support of a person closed to the victim. If you live in a house with somebody whose movement is suspicious, there is no way the police will know about it without you coming out to inform the police. For you to understand how far we have gone, you have to do a comparison between the cases of kidnapping for ransom reported and how far we have succeeded in arresting the suspects. That is what we call clearance rate. Yes, there are cases of kidnapping reported but have you asked the question about what the police is doing and what we have achieved? And why I say it’s a little bit complex crime. You see, we need to understand that the life of the people or the life of the victim is very paramount than arresting the suspect. So, we make sure that lives are not harm in the course of doing our job. Even if people are kidnapped we follow up and immediately we see a breathing space so that we can secure live of the victim. We do that first before talking about making arrest. Don’t forget the core mandate of the police is to secure lives and properties. What we do in cases of kidnapping is to first target how to secure the freedom of the victim from the criminals because life is irreplaceable if lost. After that, we go for arrest and if you look at the analysis of what we have done you will see that we have rescued people, we have arrested kidnappers and charge them to court. We have done this with a lot technical platforms and I.G.P intends to expand the platforms all over the country so that we can get these issues sorted out easily. Criminals are now leaving other crimes to engage in kidnapping because relatives of the victim will not hesitate to pay for the release of their loved ones. Other crimes are no more lucrative so they move into kidnapping for ransom because lives are involved. But I must assure you that the police are on top of the situation and with cooperation from other security agencies and Nigerians at large kidnapping and other forms of insecurity will be a thing of the past.