Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba has warned policemen never to allow hoodlums wielding guns, sticks and machetes overrun their stations.
He promised to kit them with anti-riot equipment, arms and ammunition as well as other weapons needed for effective policing through the Police Trust Fund (PTF).
Baba spoke on Wednesday at the Lagos Police Command headquarters in Ikeja during his maiden visit to the state.
But shortly after the police boss began his speech, the hitherto hot weather gave way to a windstorm which blew canopies away, dispersed chairs and caused the gathering to scamper to safety.
The development forced the IGP to retreat into the conference room to address senior officers before returning about 90 minutes later to speak with junior officers and other ranks.
Baba urged senior officers to restore discipline to the service.
He said: “When officers serving under you display courage, zeal and commitment, you need to encourage them. On the other hand, those who commit disciplinary offences must be punished so that other will see it as deterrence.
“The service can no longer tolerate acts of indiscipline, which is well known to us. We must do the needful to be able to carry on with our job. One area that we need to improve on is the issue of crowd control, riots, so that you would go back with the agreed or accepted norms of discharging this responsibility.
“You must also control the use of firearms. As commanders, you need to lecture your men and remind them when issuing rifles of the kind of situations they are to use them. You must also guard against the rifles being snatched or being carelessly handled.
“We must also be civil in the discharge of our responsibilities at all times. Never again should we allow our stations and our personnel to be sacked by hoodlums wielding guns, sticks and machetes to the extent that we would not be able to handle situations that can easily be handled because of lack of professionalism or cowardice.
“We must do in-house training. We must remind ourselves of the laws, the powers in the laws that we have and how we can discharge them.”
