18th February, 2013
A Nigerian deputy commissioner of police, Subair Olusola Kamar, has been appointed by the ECOWAS Commission as the Deputy Police Commissioner in charge of the African-led International Assistance Mission to Mali (AFISMA). He is expected to assume duties at the end of February.
The appointment was based on the recommendation of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.
Until his appointment, Kamar was the DCP Administration in the Department of Training at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
Kamar, according to a statement from the Police spokesman, Frank Mba, has served in various strategic positions not only in Nigeria but in the UN where he distinguished himself in the UN Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in the Republic of Macedonia and the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC).
Mba also said that the Inspector-General of Police has authorized the deployment of seven (7) Individual Police Officers (IPO) and One Formed Police Unit (FPU) comprising one hundred and forty (140) personnel to Mali in support of AFISMA operations aimed at restoring peace and security to the strife-torn country.
The FPU which will be self-sustaining and self-supportive will be made up of highly trained and seasoned police personnel skilled in counter-terrorism and crime detection techniques will also have its own trained engineers and medical support team. It is expected that the peacekeepers will support the capacity development of the Malian Law enforcement agencies. This is in fulfillment of the pledge of the Federal Government to continue to work with relevant development partners at defeating terrorism both at national and international levels thereby strengthening law and order in Mali and in the entire ECOWAS sub-region.
The Formed Police Unit (FPU) will be formally deployed in a month’s time.
Nigeria Police Force, at the moment has about eight hundred international Peacekeepers in many countries of the world namely: Liberia, Haiti, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, East Timor, Cote D’voire, Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea Bissau.