Jonathan urged to renovate police barracks that are death traps

*Police barracks are like refugee camps-security expert

President Good luck Jonathan, has been urged to boost the morale of members of the Nigeria Police Force, by making sure they have adequate accommodations in their barracks across the federation.

A seasoned security expert, Mr. Folorusho Atta, who made this declaration in Lagos State, during a chat with journalists,  insisted that provision of adequate accommodations for policemen would not only boost their morale, but will motivate them to work harder in areas of crime fighting and crime control.

According to Atta, “A policeman will only be too happy to work round the clock, is he has a good accommodation to house his family and to sleep after a closing from 24 hours duty shift. Provision of accommodations in barracks will not only boost morale of the personnel of the force, but will also serve as a panacea to the wanton destruction of lives and property of policemen and women!”

Atta maintained that any good government which wanted the citizens’ lives to be protected, must first start with those security agents who are saddled with the arduous responsibilities of protecting others round the clock.

He explained that events over the past years had shown that 85 percent of policemen and women killed by armed hoodlums were those who lived with civilians.

“Even those killed by suspected militants and armed robbers were given out by those who were able to identify them as policemen and women who lived among these criminals,” said Atta.

He specifically mentioned men of the Anti-riot (mobile) Unit of the force, who are operational men that lived in barracks.

He said: “President Jonathan can, in the next one year, build no fewer than 72 modern barracks and also renovate the existing ones which are dilapidated across the country. Those that were built about 30 years ago are not only now death traps, but had been turned to slums.”

The crime analyst said that his recent visit to some police barracks in Lagos State, such as Queen, Ijeh, mopol 20 and area F barracks, showed that policemen and women families who reside in barracks were no longer safe and no better than refugee camps.

Atta also revealed that these policemen and women were daily victims of epidemics because they had been abandoned by successive governments.

He stressed that no amount of equipping the police would make sense if the men and women who would make use of these equipments that are not well accommodated in conducive environment and atmosphere.

Atta equally lampooned some policemen whom he accused of spending more on frivolities than those things which would give their families comfort and good health.

“Some of these policemen and women are dirty,” he said. “Do they expect President Jonathan or IGP Mohammed Abubakar to come and sweep their houses for them,” Atta queried rhetorically.