The Acting Inspector General of Nigeria Police, Mohammed Adamu, has indicated that the law enforcement agency under his watch will not spare anybody in his determination to combat crime in the country.
While condemning the recent attack on policemen in Ogoja, Cross River State, the police big boss enjoined traditional rulers, political and community leaders not to condone acts of criminality by shielding the identities of suspects.
He has accordingly asked members of the public to provide credible information that will aid the police to apprehend the perpetrators of crime, and ordered the immediate arrest and prosecution of suspected hoodlums and thieves who attacked four Police oficers in Ogoja, Cross River State.
Before now, Adamu, had said the Police under him, will not condone any abuse of power or misuse of firearms by any member of the law enforcement agency in the discharge of their constitutional responsibilities.
He spoke in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, at an interactive meeting with officers and men of the Lagos Command held at the Police College Ikeja. He also condoled with the families of victims of police misconduct, adding that the Command in Lagos would be rejigged to guide against killings of innocent Nigerians.
A latest statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), said the attacked officers, attached to IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT) unit, were on course to arrest some suspected armed robbers and recover a stolen vehicle when the hoodlums butchered and injured them.
‘’The detectives (the victims of the savage attack) are investigating a case of a stolen Toyota Sienna Bus earlier reported by the Master Chapel Church, a Pentecostal church based in Lagos. The detectives had, after a painstaking investigation, arrested four (4) male suspects – Peter, Ben, Ebuka and Johnson.
‘’The suspects who were positively implicated in the crime by Police investigation confessed to indeed stealing the vehicle. They stated further that they had sold the vehicle to another criminal in Benue State. Hence, detectives moved to Benue State with one of the suspects.
‘’On the arrest of the suspect in Benue State, he stated that he had sold the vehicle to another notorious suspect of stolen goods based in Ogoja. With this discovery, the detectives proceeded straight to Cross River, where the notorious Ikenga was apprehended and the stolen vehicle recovered’’, the police said.
Continuing, the statement added that; in a bizarre twist, shortly after his arrest, the suspect raised an alarm in his native language which attracted his gang members. ‘’Subsequently, the policemen came under serious physical attack from the weapon-wielding hoodlums. The officers were savagely butchered by these armed gangs. Consequently, Ikenga, the notorious crook escaped with the stolen vehicle.’’
