PAC Articles

ELECTORAL CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA

An address delivered by Dr. Martins .J. Oni, Director General, Police Assistance Committee during a one day pre-election security seminar on information for free, fair and credible 2015 election at Banquet Hall, Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

The history of conducting elections in Nigeria has not been a palatable one. Our elections have always been characterized with series of challenges, ranging from violence, malpractices, outright electoral frauds, assassinations e.t.c. This situation has remained so year in year out in every elections we conduct from time to time. The political actors i.e. our politicians have not been helping issues in the way and manner they conduct themselves during their campaigns and the elections proper.

Our electoral umpires who are expected to be upright in conducting free and fair elections have always compromised in their positions. The umpires had always succumbed to pressure from politicians to subvert the system through massive rigging or outright negligence of duty on their own part. Same goes with our security agencies, particularly the police who are always directly involved in checkmating violence and manipulation of the system by supporters of politicians involved in the electoral processes.

INVOLVEMENT OF SECURITY AGENCIES DURING ELECTIONS

Our security agencies, particularly the police as a civil force have always been involved in our electoral processes as they are saddled with the role of maintaining law and order during the elections. They are to assist the electoral commission officials to move around election materials from INEC offices to various voting locations. They are also to checkmate those who are deliberately out to perpetrate violence and election rigging. In carrying out these functions, they often encountered series of challenges. However some of them have also been seen to be compromising their position by been bribed to take side by the politicians who perpetrate rigging during the elections.

It is therefore imperative that as a nation we should be thinking of how we can change this negative attitude which is a smear on our image, by ensuring that those involved in this abuse of our electoral processes be they politicians or security agencies are properly monitored and exposed to face the wrath of the law. This is where an organization like the PAC/ATA can some in to offer their services as watchdogs that gather necessary information/intelligent and forward same to the appropriate quarters.

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MARIJUANA: IT'S IMPACT ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL IMPLICATION ON NIGERIAN YOUTHS

An address delivered by Dr. Martins .J. Oni, Director General, Police Assistance Committee

MARIJUANA AS A SUBSTANCE:
What is marijuana? It could be described as a dried flower in form of seeds and leaves derivable from Indian hemp plant. Consumers give the substance many names such as Astra turf, ganja, dope, grass, hemp, texas tea, weeds to mention but a few Marijuana leaves are usually green or brown or gray in colour.

CONSUMPTION:
Its consumption pattern varies. Some chew its leave, some smokes it, some mix its leaves for stew or soup, while other soaks it in water and drink. There are many ways to use it, but what is real is that its usage is dangerous to human health.

HOW SAFE IS MARIJUANA:
Although science has proved that marijuana may help reduce symptoms of certain medical conditions, it certainly has much harmful effect depending on how often it is used. There is clear evidence that regular use of marijuana increases the risk of heart, lung and mental health problems. Less is known about the health issues that might be caused by causal or frequent marijuana use. Marijuana is a natural product that doesn’t have to be tested in a laboratory.
Science has proved that typical marijuana plants contain more than 400chemicals, including about 60 that can interact with the body’s nervous system. Smokers of the substance might inhale more than 2000chemicals. Many of those chemicals are similar to the one in cigarette smoke. Marijuana can also be contaminated with mold, insecticides or other chemicals and health effects of many of these chemicals are not known. Smoking marijuana is therefore injurious to health in many ways.

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CYBER CRIME IN NIGERIA: THE IMPLICATION ON OUR ECONOMY AND SOCIAL IMAGE

An address delivered by Dr. Martins .J. Oni, Director General, Police Assistance Committee

WHAT IS CYBER CRIME:
Cyber crime is an emerging trend that is rapidly growing in scope and frequently. The revolution in information and communication technology ICT had greatly promoted the scope and trend in cyber crime in Nigeria. The world being a global village, Nigeria could not have been in isolation in embracing the usage of social media and the internet’s which are greater promoter of cybercrime to put it succinctly, cybercrime is a product of wrong usage or abuse of ICT or internet service.

WHY THE ESCALATION IN NIGERIA:
No doubt the menace of cybercrime in Nigeria has been on the increase due to some crucial factors, mostly bothering on lack of specific laws designed to address the problem.

Most law enforcement agencies including the police are not prepared to deal with online crime due to the complex and intricate nature of the investigation couple with the rapid advancement of new technology. Our society continue to get more involved in the crime, while the public expects our law enforcement agencies to keep pace with modern technology as it affects the investigation and prosecution process, and by extension tackling crime in general.

Cybercrime still remain a major cause of concern in Nigeria for many government security departments, and combating cyber threats are becoming harder to content with due to the sophisticated and complex manners in which cyber criminals are operating, and the poor investigative approaches by law enforcement agencies.

ECONOMIC MENACE OF CYBER CRIME:
While the escalation of cyber crime could not be curtailed adequately by crime prevention agencies, the effects continue to bite hard on our economy, both locally and internationally. Aside from the social menace it is creating in our entire systems to a large extent, cyber crime has thrown up a large number of 419 perpetrators in our economic system. Very easily people are able to commit economic crime through the internet by duping one another of large sum of money locally and internationally. Corporate internet fraud has been on the increase as even unscrupulous banking officials are conniving with outsiders to steal depositor’s funds.

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Effective Community Policing and Electoral Challenges in Nigeria: The Role of Police Assistance Committee, Association of Tradesmen / women & Artisans

A paper presented by Dr. Martins .J. Oni, Director General, Police Assistance Committee / Association of Tradesmen & Artisans of Nigeria (PAC/ATA).

All Protocols Observed:-

Introduction:

It is a great honour and privilege in my capacity as the Director-General of the Police Assistance Committee of Nigeria, and its affiliate, Association of Tradesmen / women and Artisans, on security challenges confronting our country. There cannot be a better time than now to stage a security summit on the role of our security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police during our electioneering process. As a civil force, the Nigeria Police Force usually have more responsibility and functions to perform during our elections, hence it is necessary to discuss and analyze their expected role while conducting elections in the country.

My presentation will dwell on the topic: “Effective Community Policing and Electoral Challenges in Nigeria”: The Role of Police Assistance Committee / Association of Tradesmen & Artisans” This topic is very important for my organization since most of our actions and activities revolve around community policing.

The modus operandi of PAC / ATA centres on grassroots mobilization of our members to carry out the function of gathering information / intelligence to assist the police and other security agencies in the performance of their duties, which in itself is a function of community policing.

It is in this light that I shall speak extensively on how we have been mobilizing our members at grassroots level to assist our security agencies through information dissemination, with our large membership spreading across the entire country. Our performance in this respect has been largely due to our training programmes through seminars / workshop which we constantly organize for members where we usually involve the security agencies as resource people to interact with and impact knowledge to our members.

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Global Perspective of Community Policing: A New World Order to Prevent and Combat Crime

A paper presented by Dr. Martins .J. Oni, Director General, Police Assistance Committee / Association of Tradesmen & Artisans of Nigeria (PAC/ATA) during ISS World Conference on Intelligence Support System for Lawful Interception, Electronic Surveillance and Cyber Intelligence Gathering held at Sandton Convention Center, Johannesburg, South Africa in July 2014.

Community policing can aptly be described as partnership and collaborative efforts in lending support to activities of the police in combating and preventing crime in the society. Globally the definition of community policing has remain consistent  i.e fraternization of better ideas to address public safety issues, strategic initiatives within departments to better efficiency and concentrated involvement at all levels.

The concept of community policing has continue to gain ground globally, becoming an acceptable model and norm to fight crime through collaborative communal policing, the collaboration among public safety groups and the creation of an enormous network of partners has made the most significant impact on policing and providing safer neighborhoods.

No doubt, the concept has become a new world order having globally affirmed its effectiveness in ensuring public safety through collaborative group efforts to mobilize support on information networking to assist security agencies.

For instance, at the 120th Annual International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Conference held in Philadelp hia, U.S.A. in October 2013, a whole session was devoted to discourse on community policing and community capacity building. Prominent and Senior police chiefs presented papers on the topic, making the United States a reference point.

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