British High Commission, Abuja, says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to support deployment to the North East with the goal of providing greater safety and security in an accountable manner to Nigerian citizens there.
The British High Commission’s support will be through strategic technical assistance and advice, and builds on previous work with the NPF and the community policing approach supported by Department for International Development’s (DfID) Justice for All programme (J4A), the commission said in a statement sent to BusinessDay.
It further said the partnership builds on support the British High Commission Abuja has provided to assist in the actualisation of the vision of the NPF and of the Minister of the Interior for the North East; “winning the war and winning the peace”.
The MoU forms part of the UK’s broader approach to supporting an integrated and sequenced security, political and economic response which stabilises northeast Nigeria, meeting the immediate humanitarian needs of population, with sufficient safety and security to enable the civilian population to return and for reconstruction to occur.
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, has extended his congratulations to the new Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, though the MoU was signed by the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase,
The UK mission in Nigeria has said that it looks forward to continuing to work with the new police authority over the years to come.
