Monday, November 07, 2005

IG: Police, Bribery’ll Ruin Your Family THISDAY IG: Police, Bribery’ll Ruin Your Family From Funni Peter-Omale in Abuja, 11.07.2005 Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, yesterday warned 'Divisional Police Officers and Area Commanders in the Federal Capital Territory that sharing from bribery money collected by policemen on road blocks and other beats will only bring calamity to their respective families. While addressing the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lawrence Alobi, Divisional Police Officers and the Area Commanders within the Federal Capital, Ehindero said the high spate of crime in Abuja was due to dereliction of duty by the police officers. "Some of you DPOs are corrupt and I have got reports that some of you put pressure on your men for them to give you ‘returns’. It’s either you don't supervise your men well or you encourage them to be corrupt. You don't know that the ‘returns’ you're collecting are ‘returns’ for sicknesses and diseases into your families. You should know that the positions you are occupying is a privilege. “You should not abuse your positions by getting involved in corrupt practices. Some of you under your nose, pipelines are being vandalised. Do you want to tell me that you don't know the vandals? They are people under your divisions and yet you feign ignorance when all these criminal activities are going on in your command," Ehindero said. "I have called you because despite all we have been doing to curb crime, to ensure that crime rate within the metropolis of Abuja goes down, the reverse is the case. I think there is a high level of complacency among you people. You are so complacent to the extent that you don't bother with what is happening within your divisions and area commands. "I have been invited to the Presidential Villa on two or three occasions mainly because of your own dereliction of duty not mine. Not mine because three additional units have been posted to the FCT and yet I've not seen anything positive to show for the additional manpower that I have deployed. That's why I have called you here to let you know not only my thinking but also the thinking of government about your non-chalance. "It is a fact that there will be robbery in a division and it is the lot of some of us in the headquarters here to alert the DPO or Area Commander and sometimes the CP of what is happening within their division. Surprisingly, even when we try to call some of these subordinates, their phones will be saying they are not available because they switched off. Maybe you do not know the nature of the job you're doing. If you do not, then you better know now that you don't have time of your own," he said. Ehindero later read a riot act to the police officers as he said henceforth, Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) would be held responsible for armed robbery cases within their domain. "Henceforth, any division where there is armed robbery, that DPO will be queried. And that query will go into his personal confidential file. The Area Commander will have his own query too. I think we have to resort to that because I don't know what else to do," he said. He particularly cited the Abuja Games Village area where he said there are armed robbery incidents every day despite his directives to the Criminal Investigation Bureau to identify the root of the daily occurrence. "Everyday I learn of armed robbery in the Games Village, I called the CIBs to get me result on those doing these and I have not gotten result. The men are not there. Something is happening. In Abuja, we have 260 CIBs and yet we are not getting any result. I am almost taking a decision to disband all of them and put them in uniform because I can't get useful intelligence report for me to detect robbery. I have directed that a roll call of the CIBs be taken and anyone who is not found at his duty post will be sent out of Abuja," he said. He called the DPO in charge of the Games Village and publicly declared that "if there is any crime or robbery case in the Games Village, you're finished." "You must redesign and re-organise the deployment of your men so that there are more men at the station at the times robberies are taking place," the IG said. He said he had informed the authorities on what the Nigeria Police need to effectively combat crime in the nation. "For instance, in Abuja we need up to 10 APCs (armoured vehicles) while we need about 15 for Lagos. They agreed with me that its true the Police need to be re-equipped. But while that is being worked out, I think we should make effective use of the resources we have", he said.     REMAIN INFORMED WE SEND IT TO YOUR MAIL THISDAY NEWSLETTER Name E-Mail   Who We Are | THISDAY People | Contact Us 7:23:01 PM    comment []

Zik’s House Razed in Police, MASSOB Clash ThisDay Zik’s House Razed in Police, MASSOB Clash Two feared killed By Charles Onyekamuo in Awka, Jaiyeola Andrews, in Asaba, 11.07.2005 A violent exchange yesterday between the police in Anambra State and members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in Onitsha, left the house in the compound of Nigeria’s first indigenous president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, severely burnt while two died and several others were wounded. Accounts of what led to the gun duel between the police and the MASSOB group were as conflicting as the interests they tend to protect. thisday however established from those who volunteered information from either of the groups that a gun duel ensued between MASSOB supporters numbering over 3,000 who were protesting in a procession the arrest of their leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, and the police at the Borromeo end of the Onitsha – Enugu expressway. Madu, a MASSOB leader said his group had begun a peaceful protest march against Uwazurike's arrest and detention from the Niger River bridge head in Onitsha at about 9.30 a.m. "But as we were approaching Zik’s round about in the Borromeo area, very close to Army gate, suddenly, we saw flames coming out of Zik’s house, but we didn’t suspect anything sinister and continued our march which was to terminate at the New Spare Parts Market, Nkpor, about two kilometres away. "But on approaching the gate enclosing Zik’s compund, some policemen in mufti opened fire on the crowd, killing two instantly, and injuring several orders", he said. He said police action must have incensed the crowd who then engaged the police. He denied that his members carried fire arms, insisting that they were not violent. Madu said the police were framing members of the organisation alleging that they were responsible for the arson in Zik’s houses. "We felt it was the agents of Nigerian Government that inflamed the arson to discredit us, the Federal Government can do anything to blackmail MASSOB before the outside world as a violent or terrorist organisation. Imagine when they wanted to effect the arrest of our leader, they disguised as members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). So you can see the extent they can go to tarnish the image of MASSOB as a non- violent organisation. "We members of MASSOB are not stupid to the extent that we burn down Zik’s houses. Zik was a Biafran, and we hold him in high esteem and respect him a lot as a pioneer freedom fighters, just the way we are now doing. So, how do you think we shall burn down his houses under any guise," he said. According to a senior police officer attached to the Onitsha Area Command, but who did not want his name in print, the MASSOB members had blocked the highways in the early hours of yesterday protesting the arrest and detention of Uwazurike. The police, he said, had been trying to contain them right from the Upper Iweka area of Onitsha to no avail, but that as the group moved towards the Zik’s roundabout, they were challenged by policemen. "But because of their number, over 3,000 of them, they over -whelmed a few of our men on the ground and the MASSOB people chased the police who ran into Zik's Compound to escape being lynched. But in a bid to get to the police men they chased them into the compound, and incidentally when they came and saw that painters were working on Zik's house, painting them in green, white, green colours, they got infuriated, left the police they were chasing and ignited fire on the buildings," he said. He however did not give insight into the kind of challenge his men gave to the band of protesters. The fire, he said, burnt inexorably because the vehicles from the fire service station in Onitsha had no water. He said a team of mobile police men from the Onitsha area command were later called in to help. Thisday checks inside Zik's Inosi Onira" expansive compound revealed that the mob burnt down the police post within the compound, and an adjacent duplex. Four other bungalows which serve as boys quarters were all reduced to rubbles, while the main building where the great Zik was laid in state during his funeral in 1996 was severely torched with all the window glass panes shattered. "There were also blood drop all over the place, while house hold effect like fridges, deep freezers, television sets, rugs, clothings, mattresses, and books in the shelf were buint. "My home is in a shambles", Chukwuma Azikiwe Zik's first son and the current Owelle of Onitsha said. "I was here in one of the burnt duplexes and all I noticed was that there was disturbance outside that gate, near the round-about area. I believe the police people were engaged with people they said were nembers of MASSOB. I was planning to go out but decided to briefly supervise the workmen painting the houses, in preparation for the christmas centenary birthday of my father (Zik) so. We started hearing a lot of heavy gun fire outside, and we saw a surge of people running in. Then we saw some wounded police men streaming with blood. so I converted one of the buildings to an emergency sick bed, and the other police men over-powered outside the gate were running. "In the meantime, people who had run into this compound were asking me to go and lock the gate, but I dicided the best option would be to go and appeal to them and evaluate people here put just as we were thinking what to do, the crowd surged in and started burning the police post, shouting,"where are the policemen" People were scaling the fence wall including some of the policemen that were around. The crowd said they were bent on fishing out the police men and started breaking the window glass, they burnt down that duplex where I live, so, I started looking for a convenient place to hide. from my hideout, I wanted to call the police command for reinforcement but the diary containing the phone number of the police commission was not available.It was in the house that was on fire, together with N260,000 and my passbook. They burnt down  everything. Nothing was spared. "They over powered every body.They were wild and started combing the whole compound for the police.They ransacked the place and set the buildings ablaze. The way they did it, you begin to wonder if it is the police they were chasing", he said. But chairman of Onitsha north council area, Mr. Bright Osemeka disagreed with Azikwe's claims. He said after the assessment of the situation upon getting the report and meeting with the members of his executive council. He felt that beyond the police and MASSOB clash, he suspected that there was something not known to the ordinary people that may have precipitated the mob action on Zik's houses. "The way Zik's residence was burnt down shows there was an articulated premeditation of what should be done", he said, He disagreed with the claims that Chukwuma Azikiwe's fall-out with the Onitsha traditional council may have become a latent factor behind the arson,"To the best of my knowlege, I don't think arsonists are indigenes of Onitsha and Chukwuma is still the Owelle of Onitsha", he said. Anambra state police commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu exonerated the police from the arson saying it was perpetrated by members of the MASSOB. He said 18 members were arrested at Nnewi where they also held a protest march but that no arrest had been made so far in Onitsha.   While the MASSOB protest lasted, Niger Bridge end at Onitsha was blocked. Commuters and business activities were grounded to a halt in the commercial city for several hours, the second in two weeks by the group. The entire Onitsha-Asaba expressway was blocked with motor tyres which they set ablaze and no vehicle was allowed to enter or leave Onitsha, as demonstrators were having a field day. The demonstrators chanting war songs carried placards, some of  which read "Nigeria's abduction of Chief Ralph Uwazuruike is inhuman",  "Freedom is sure". "We are Biafrans not Nigerians", "Please release Chief  Uwazuruike" and  "Stop killing MASSOB" One of the group's leaders, Chief Venatius Muoneke, told newsmen that they were demanding for the immediate and unconditional release of Uwazuruike. He said the action was also aimed at sensitising the world that the government had not stopped killing and arresting MASSOB members. He said Uwazuruike had since the formation of MASSOB six years ago, remained non-violent and never advocated violence in the struggle for the actualization of the sovereignty of Biafra. Also in Asaba, MASSOB members organised a protest in the Delta State capital over the continued detention Uwazurike, by the State Security Services in Abuja. The protesters, numbering over 50 and clad in black, also took over a section of the busy Nnebisi road in Asaba thereby obstructing the flow of traffic within the state capital. All mini bus transporters who ply the Asaba-Onitsha route were forced to remain indoors for the greater part of the day. The protesters were chanting songs in agitation for the release of their leader, Uwazurike and warned that no amount of intimidation from any quarters would make them stop their dream for the Biafra republic. Also at the Niger Bridge head, the protesters were seen in groups where they had earlier hoisted a flag believed to be a Biafra flag. When men of the Nigeria Police, Area B command swooped on them making arrests, the protesters appeared undeterred as they drammatically urged the police to go for a bigger vehicle to take them all. They insisted they were ready to go with the police if they wanted all of them arrested.       REMAIN INFORMED WE SEND IT TO YOUR MAIL THISDAY NEWSLETTER Name E-Mail   Who We Are | THISDAY People | Contact Us 5:56:39 PM    comment []