In his characteristic, Ari Ali Mohammed, the newly deployed Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Zone 2 Command, doesn’t have soft spot for criminal elements. This, he has proved everywhere he has served as a crime buster per excellence. In a chat with some selected newsmen on assumption of office at the Onikan, Lagos headquarters of the Zone, Mohammed bared his mind on his blueprint to pilot the affairs of the zone. RAYMOND TEDUNJAYE was there for NEW NIGERIAN.
Except:
What is your impression when being deployed to Lagos?
Well, for me, coming back to Lagos is home coming and I must say I feel highly elated and very honoured to be here.
Have you taken into cognisance the responsibility lying ahead of you, particularly supervising the affair of two states?
Of course, I am a hard fighter without being told. So, for me, taking anything into cognisance is an understatement, I am fully prepared for the job.
What should residents expect in terms of border and riverine security?
They should expect reduction in crime perpetration. We want to see how we can bring crime relatively under control, at least to give Lagosians and of course, Ogun State residents that enabling environment, where people will do their businesses without fear of being attacked and secondly, to ensure that they go home from their various places of businesses and sleep well with their two eyes closed.
The issues of cultism and gangsterism appear to be major problems facing both states, what new plan do you have to tackle the menace?
The best approach to fight cultism is of course, through community policing and that tells you that we have to partner all the major actors and stakeholders. You can’t do it alone.
Globally, it has been acknowledged that in crime fighting, there is no way the police alone can do it. You take into cognisance all the actors, you talk about the parents, you talk about the teachers, you talk about the religious bodies, you talk about the landlord associations and what have you. All the major stakeholders, for me, are paramount and key in this fight.
With this determination to battle crime to a stand still, do you envisage any challenge?
For me, when you begin to see challenges as problems, you already have that sense of self defeatism, but when you see challenges as opportunities to excel, I am sure you will excel definitely. So I don’t really see anything as a challenge to me.
Is there going to be change in operational order or maintain what you will meet on ground?
We will improve on whatever we are meeting on ground.
What is your message to criminals?
They should relocate and whosoever refuses to relocate, we will dislocate the person.
When appointed as the AIG Zone 2, what was your mindset?
Well, a lot of things have to come into play. First, you have to do your crime mapping to know where we have those notorious criminals that normally disturb businesses and of course residents, then you think about how to go into partnership with major actors and see how best you can nip such crime in the bud.
Indiscipline among personnel is another worrisome omen, how do you hope to tackle it?
You know in the Police, we have our own internal discipline mechanism, it’s an organisation that is well organised, there is nobody that is above discipline and everything we talk about in the police revolves basically around discipline. All we need to do is to strengthen those areas where we feel our men are not doing well in terms of enforcement of discipline.
Once we are able to enforce discipline in all ramifications of the job, for me, you are home and dry and everybody will fall into place to what is right. But when you are lackadaisical and have lazy attitude to work, your body language is what the men are looking up to. If you are the type that sleeps and snores, you don’t take things seriously the way they are, don’t expect anything from the men.
