As Nigeria grapples with rampant insecurity in the Northeast brought about by the Boko Haram and other Islamist sects operating on the region and areas bordering Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic, with no discernible remedy in sight, coupled with banditry in most northern states, another worrying issue has reared its head in the South South and Southeastern parts of the country.
In the past six months, there has been reports of isolated cases of policemen and police stations being attacked by unknown gunmen who after the cowardly attacks, collects the rifles of the slain officers and disappeared into thin air.
The average Nigerian may have passed it off as isolated incidents but recent events may have pointed to those attacks as a well planned and orchestrated move by some groups to acquire arms for future criminal activities.
Investigations by Daily Episode showed that more than ten policemen had lost their lives in the line of duty from February 16th 2021 to February 25th 2021, with eight of the recorded deaths occurring within a five day timeframe.
Recall that on 16th February, two policemen were killed by unknown gunmen and their rifles carted away along the Ugbolu-Illah road in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State. Their killers are yet to be arrested even as investigations continue.
Then on Monday, February 22, unknown gunmen also attacked the Ogba Zoological Garden in Benin City, Edo state, killing three policemen on duty, took away their rifles and kidnapped the managing director of the garden.
The Abia State police command also lost two police officers when a police station was attacked in Aba by gunmen who also took away the rifles of the slain officers. However, in the ensuing gun battle, the police succeeded in killing two of the gun men and efforts have are in top gear to arrest the other fleeing gunmen. The attack was so bad that the Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu banned the operations of all commercial tricycles and motorcycles in all major cities of the state, vowing that his administration will not tolerate any person or group of persons who want to make Abia a base for their criminal activities.
There was also a heavy gun battle between the police and suspected members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB in Delta state on February 23 when the police discovered three camps belonging to the group in Ugbolu-Illah and Utulu-Asaba road in the state. Sadly, two policemen lost their lives while the police neutralized three of the outlawed group’s members in the shootout.
The same trend continued in Ekwulobia, one of the largest cities in Anambara state as hoodlums ambushed a police patrol vehicle, killed one policeman and burnt the patrol vehicle. The slain officer’s rifle was also taken away.
Reacting to these incidents,Ikechukwu Obi, a journalist and public affairs commentator pointed out that the issue has gone beyond isolated incidents, saying that the trend of attacking policemen and carting away their rifles has become a modus operandi for a group of persons especially in the southeast who will use those stolen rifles to unleash mayhem on innocent citizens if nothing is done by the security agencies to arrest this ugly situation.
Also, a serving senior police officer who crave anonymity declared that the police hierarchy was well aware of the situation and has deployed highly trained detectives to the various affected states to track down and arrest the criminals involved in those crimes.
“Very soon, Nigerians will start seeing the faces of these criminals as all Commissioners of Police in those states have devised means to combat criminals in their various states. We will be seeing results soon.”
He added that traditional rulers and community leaders have a duty to play by being conscious of the activities of criminals in the domains and report to the police if they see any untoward activities.
