Hyacinth Chinweuba
The new Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Murtala Mani, has disclosed plans to reinforce the Criminal Investigation Department, in its renewed commitment to fight crime across the country.
He has therefore warned fraudsters and bandits operating in any part of Nigeria to quit or face the wrath of the unit.
The new Criminal Investigations Department boss said the department has spread its dragnet across all states in the country in line with the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar Adamu’s concerted effort to reposition the Nigeria Police Force, the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annexe at Alagbon Close, Lagos.
Mani has commenced the upgrading of the unit to regain its lost glory as a centre of excellence in various areas of police activities.
Speaking with newsmen at his maiden press briefing at the weekend in his office, the AIG in charge of the FCID Annexe, Alagbon Close, Murtala Usman Mani said that since his assumption of office few weeks ago, all sections of the Department were being reactivated to render the services they were originally created for.
He warned fraudsters and other criminally minded people to turn a new leaf as the FCID Alagbon under his watch would strictly reinvigorate the corporate identity for which the various sections of the Department were known for in yester-years.
The sections which are about eleven in number include General Investigation, Interpol, Central Criminal Registry, Police Special Fraud Unit, Homicide and Forensic. Other sections are Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Special Enquiry Bureau, Anti-Human Trafficking, Legal and X-Squad.
The AIG who had served in different capacities at various formations of the Nigeria Police Force including Force Headquarters where he was the Principal Staff Officer to different IGPs consecutively said with the mandate of IGP Adamu, he was poised to take FCID Alagbon back to its glorious days stressing that serious refurbishing were going on in the Forensic laboratory and other units.
He assured the journalists that within the next few weeks, all the sections would have been upgraded to function effectively as the IGP has given every necessary assistance to make things work.
The AIG who served as the 20th Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom enjoined the journalists to always see themselves as partners in progress as according to him “no society can develop without information dissemination.”
He encouraged the media not to compromise their position but to always expose ills of the society without fear or favour.