The Anambra Police Command has advised parents in the state to inculcate good family values into their children and wards, in order to stamp out insecurity in society.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Nnaghe Itam, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Saturday.
Itam spoke with NAN on the sideline of the “Couples Night”, organised by the command to further unite the families of its personnel.
“I want the people of Anambra to look inward into their families and make it better.
“The society we have today starts from the family.
“Therefore, if we encourage and promote family values, much of what we have as crime in Anambra today will be minimised or stopped,” Itam said.
He advised criminal elements in the state to repent or get ready to face the law, as the police would do everything possible to fish them out.
He said: “We will keep enforcing the law, in order to wipe out criminality in the state.
“Beyond all these, it is important that the criminals repent because, until that happens, we will not have safe communities,” the police chief said.
He described police job as “disadvantageous to a stable family”, hence the couples night to bring the police families together.
He decried the situation “where nobody tries to look at how the frequent postings affect the families of the police personnel negatively.
“A man is posted to somewhere and he leaves immediately as the job demands and his family is left somewhere else.
“As the officer keeps going on transfer, they are raising children whom these transfers tend to have negative impact on.
“Therefore, I created this to enable the police families bond together to rekindle love again,” he said.
NAN reports that aside the intermittent attacks an killings by gunmen, Anambra also experiences other violent crimes, including cult wars among some of its youths, resulting in the loss of many lives.