“…The Realization That Police Cannot Do It Alone, Wwe Ggalvanize Sstakeholders Ssupport Aand Ppartnership Ffor Problem Solving…”
Says Coordinator POCACOV.
By Charles Edet
The Coordinator of POLICE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CULTISM AND OTHER VICES, (POCACOV) has called on citizen to be well engaged on programmes that will help in addressing Criminality amongst youths and children of Nigeria for a greater nation.
Ebere, lectured National Detective Team on what POCACOV represents and what does as it campaigns against cultism, targeting youths.
He averred that:
POCACOV means: POLICE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CULTISM AND OTHER VICES This is a short form for POLICE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CULTISM AND OTHER VICES.It is an NPF Community policing Initiative and Public Relations Tool working with different stakeholders and Multi Agencies and galvanizing their support and Partnership as well as enhancing Participation towards problem Solving for a safe ,peaceful and Secured Communities through non kinetic approaches.POCACOV is solely a community driving program of the Nigeria Police Force in the realization of its Community Policing Framework at all levels through Mobilization,Partnership,Participation and Problem Solving in line with the tenets of the Community Oriented Policing (C.O.P).
Driving Philosophy /Rationale behind POCACOV: As a Community driven program and public Relations TOOL of NPF ,It is built around the people and thats why the slogan is “its all about You” with the following as Aims and Objectives:To Sensitize Members of the public particularly the young minds and other Stakeholders on the dangers of belonging into membership of unlawful societies(Cultism) and other Vices,To Reawaken the Security Consciousness of Members of the Public,To help inculcate Moral Values in Our Youths,young minds and reawaken the consciousness of other members of the community,To educate relevant stakeholders Such as Traditional rulers and other community members,Political Class,Student Union leaders and students,Faith based organizations ,Civil society organizations ,Farmers ,Artisans and other Relevant bodies and organizations on the dangers of these vices and seek participation for problem solving.
He stated further that POCACOV is concerned with Advocacy ,Awareness Creation /Sensitizations/Reorientation and Mentoring with a view to cutting the supply chains and conveyor belts of young minds involvement into cultism ,Substance and drug abuse,Violent behaviours and other Vices in the community.POCACOV makes use of Committee base forum ,Activity base ,Forum base approaches which is anchored on community oriented policing tenets.
On its target, the Coordinator maintained that it is Community based on which is in form of meeting with community leaders and Subjects as other community organizations,Activity base is in form of the use of the instrumentality of community sports and sports parenting to act upon the minds of the young minds and the youths and parents for effective parenting with proper adult guidance for a functional community.
POCACOV is informed by the realization that police cannot do it alone and that core law enforcement is not a good approach in solving socially driven crime and criminality especially cultism and other vices that threaten communal Values but through an approach that is community driven which seek to find the cause of the matter from the grass root and galvanizing stakeholders support and partnership for problem solving.
On its Organizational Structure, he said POCACOV is a program of the police ,by the people and the police and for the people. It has the National Coordinator under the Force Public Relations officer .The National Coordinator operates from the IGP POCACOV Resource Centre where modolues of engagement and other research materials are developed for Natioinwidewide implementation.
It is domiciled in all the states of federation under the office of zonal and state PPROS and has in each states, POCACOV Volunteer Club Chairmen who are members of the community.
POCACOV has POCACOV Ambassadors Scheme with developed and approved Standard operating proceedures for pocacov implementations as Actors,Actress,Sports supers stars,McS AND Comedians of great repute.
As a community driven program, It has POCACOV NYSC Community Development Service to operate in all Nigerian Localities .
The challenges of POCACOV includes lack of funding and logistics issues for campaign materials production and deployments as well as carrying out various community engagement intervention in line with with the community based crime prevention strategies.
The NPF doing its best, to ensure for its smooth operations in all the state of the federation by making every commissioner of police,Zonal Aigs be part of the program and POCACOV would be carrying out its lecturing duty as it make progress in the campaign to better the human foundation that hinges on youths development.
CSP Ebere, said “While we look forward to partnering with patriotic Nigerian groups and corporate bodies, we still Rest our greater achievements that must be attributed to the good leadership of our able and indefatigable IGP, Usman Alkali Baba.” He said.
