Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo
State has called on the Inspector-General of Police to investigate how
criminals sacked the Police Area Command and Divisional Police Station, freed
inmates and held Auchi town in Edo North hostage for over three hours with no
response from the police.
The Governor who made the call
yesterday during an inspection of the First Bank, Access Bank, Ecobank,
soldiers’ quarters and the police formations attacked by bandits last week
Auchi, said there is need for the police to do a soul-searching to see if there
are no men within the police who did not compromise security.
According to the governor, “to
think that a police station with arms could be attacked and the police could
not gun down one criminal gives cause for worry.
“I was not happy that the police
had to park the Armoured Personnel Carrier behind the Area Commander’s office
instead of being at strategic locations in Auchi town. It shows that the police
are not using the funds given to them maximally. I am not impressed because the
APC ought to be in operation.
“The fact that the APC was packed
at the back of the station and bombed there means that it was not put to
maximum use. It is unacceptable. They should begin to account for their
negligence of duty, incompetence or both. Until we begin to do that, this
lamentation will continue and criminals will continue to operate and demystify
the state and make us look like a collection of mushrooms that can be consumed
with minimal efforts.
“I believe the police will have to
do investigation to reassure us that we are safe. The fact that they can attack
two police formations and do that kind of damage shows the need to revisit the
role of policing and their operational order,” he said.
The governor however praised the
Army for the five soldiers who repelled the attack and killed one of the
bandits who attacked and attempted to bomb a private residence where the
soldiers reside.
“The point has been made that if
you attack a military base you will pay a huge price. For me, that is a little
relief that one of the bandits was killed by the soldiers in the sense that his
identity will help us to assist the security agencies in their investigations,”
he noted.
The governor expressed shock at
the sheer guts of the criminals, saying that investigations being carried out
by the security agencies will help to unravel what happened.
“The security agencies are
investigating and I have no reason to believe that their investigation will not
lead to positive outcome that will help us to identify these criminals. But
much more important is to learn the right lessons from the incident to take
security issues more seriously than has been the case.
“I am troubled by what I saw, but
we are not giving up. The criminals cannot win; they must be defeated and
brought to justice. Let reassure your highness that the irreducible
responsibility of any government is to protect lives and property. If
government cannot protect lives and property, then we are in trouble.
“I accept responsibility as the
Governor of Edo State for what happened. We have a duty to contribute in
ensuring security. I do hope that you appreciate that what has happened is not
because of wont of efforts, it is in spite of efforts.
“We have spent our meagre
resources at the level of Edo State government to support the Police by
providing vehicles and even communication gadgets. We have set up ‘Operation
Thunderstorm’ and persuaded the President and Commander-in-Chief to allow the
Army to join the Police to complement the efforts of the Police to patrol the
cities across the state.
“Ordinarily, the Army should not
be involved in civil policing but because of the sheer deficiency on the side
of the Police, we had to get the Army to reinforce the Police. This is why you
have seen soldiers manning the Operation Thunderstorm. We will continue to
provide support for the Police, we will continue to pay allowances to officers
and men who are involved in patrolling; we will continue to ensure that the
Police must search their ranks to ensure that we don’t have criminals wearing
uniforms, providing sensitive information to criminals that seems to help them
to achieve the kind of damage they have done here without the criminals
counting their losses.
“We must ask more fundamental
questions on the role of the Police and insist on responsible answers.
Everything must be done to ensure that Edo State does not become part of the
high security zones in the country.
“I’ll like to commiserate with the
people of Auchi Kingdom. My heart goes to the families who were killed, and in
particular, those soldiers whose only reason for being where they are is to
watch over us so that we can keep our eyes closed.
“I’m calling on the Police
authorities to do proper internal investigation and ensure that those who were
negligent are brought to book.”
The Otaru of Auchi, Alhaji Aliru
Momoh, Ikelebe 111 said he praised Almighty Allah that although the bandits
operated for over three hours, they succeeded in taking money from only one of
the three banks attacked and he congratulated the governor who has done
everything to ensure the security of the state.
He said to complement the security
agencies, the government set up vigilance groups. He however lamented that the
vigilance groups did not have arms to repel the criminals and defend the
community.
He said a way out of the present
security challenge is for the government to liberalise the law on weapons so
that everybody can defend himself.
The traditional ruler disclosed
that he is aware that approval has been given for the deployment of Mobile
police men to Auchi which is the fastest growing community in Nigeria with
boundaries with other states and for about a year now they are not there.
He prayed Allah to bring
perpetrators of the criminal act to justice saying “anybody who has come to
this community to do this harm will come to justice, Insha Allah. Almighty
Allah will bring them to justice.”
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