Nigeria
Police authority has said that it will no longer tolerate excuses
from its men concerning unlawful killing of citizens in the name of
‘accidental discharge’.
Emmanuel
Ojukwu, Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) made the declaration at
the Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies
(FOSSRA)/I-Nigerian Initiative media briefing in Abuja.
Ojukwu
also lamented the unprecedented number of casualties the force has
suffered in the on-going terrorists’ activities in parts of the
country.
“There
is nothing like accidental discharge because every gun has a safety
lever. You must have cocked the gun before it fired and you only cock
a gun when you have the intention of firing. If you kill illegally,
the police will deal with you.”
He
also noted with regret that most of the time when casualty figures
are reported in the media from the war against Boko Haram, "no mention
is made of policemen whereas police have more widows and orphans
than any other agency in the country” and appealed that adequate
and prompt compensations be given to dependants of these fallen
heroes. Continue..
Ojukwu
said it deployed the 13 helicopters it possessed to engage the
thieves in aerial surveillance while other officers combed the
forests on foot to combat the militant marauders in the affected
communities in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna States among others.
According
to him, the operation would be a continuous one so that those who
have gone into hiding will not have the opportunity to return.
He
also dismissed allegations that despite the creation of other
agencies like Nigerian Customs, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence,
Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Road Safety Commission and others,
policemen still perform those functions.
According
to him, Nigeria Police is the oldest law enforcement agency in the
country and was vested with enormous powers but that despite the
creation of other agencies later, there has been no law removing such
functions from the police.
He
explained that the police was currently being repositioned for better
performance and that it was in that regards that Inspector General of
Police Suleiman Abba has ordered the auditing of police armoury and
constituted another committee to review the technical infrastructure
including ICT.
On the
much contentious issue of removal of police orderlies from Speaker of
the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal, Ojukwu declined to speak
much but contended that there was already a decided Supreme Court
case on the matter that it becomes a matter of compulsion for the
occupier of the office to vacate the seat once he/she leaves the
party upon which he contested and won the election in the first
place.
He
then reviewed the number of casualties from the Wednesday bombing
of Federal College of Education, Kontangora, saying that aside the
female suicide bomber, another student who was badly wounded later
died thus bringing the number of deaths to two.
Culled
PRNigeria
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