THE Imo State Commissioner of Police, Nasiru Mohammed, and his top officers have been booted out following Monday’s attack on the state Police Command headquarters and the Nigerian Custodial Centre which led to the release of 600 suspects and 1,884 inmates from the correctional facility. The PUNCH gathered on Thursday that Mohammed was removed alongside the Deputy Commissioner, Operations, Ilyasu Yahaya; and Assistant Commissioner, Operations, James Aikai, by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu. Adamu, who was also relieved of his appointment by the Presidency while at the scene of the attack, announced the removal of the three officers while addressing the men of the command. A senior police officer said the CP was found to have neglected to ask for reinforcement from Mobile Police Squadrons 18 and 64 and the military during the attack carried out by suspected Indigenous People of Biafra members. The security source stated, “Apart from failing to act on the intelligence provided to him about two weeks ago, the CP also failed to draft the Mobile Police Force on standby during the attack. There were PMF Squadrons 18 and 64 in the state, but the commissioner did not signal any of them to assist in repelling the attack. This is gross negligence. “The CP, DCP and ACP Operations were all redeployed while the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Administration, is the acting CP now. They were redeployed to Abuja because you can’t send incompetent officers to any state.” The source said investigations had confirmed that IPOB carried out the attack in a move to rescue some of their top commanders and chief priest arrested by the police last month. “They were not aware that the 16 suspects had been moved to Abuja. So, they attacked the CID with the intention of rescuing the men. Why the Force Headquarters is disappointed is that the CP got the intelligence report about two weeks ago that IPOB may attack the command, but he did not act on it,” the senior officer explained. Our correspondent further gathered that the Joint Security Task Force in the state codenamed, Operation Search and Flush, had not been active following the failure of the state government to pay the men allowances and provide the necessary logistics. Had it been active, the task force, it was learnt, would have greatly assisted in repelling the attack by the gunmen on the security facilities. It was learnt that the task force members drawn from the Police, Civil Defence, Navy, Army, Mobile Police and others, were being owed eight months’ allowances by the state government. A source said, “The joint security team used to assist the command in gathering intelligence and operations, but the state government abandoned the structure and allowed it to collapse. They have not been paid for over eight months and the state also did not fuel their vehicles. So, they stopped working; the intelligence gathering of the state is down.” Our correspondent was informed that the premises of the Imo State Police Command headquarters had been taken over by pubs and restaurants and shops with the female police officers selling all manners of wares inside their vehicles parked within the grounds. A senior police officer on special duty in the state observed, “The Imo State Command headquarters is just like Wuse market; every woman police working there sells boxers, T-shirts and other stuffs in their vehicles parked around the command. “Do you know those who are coming to patronise them are coming to gather intelligence on the command? You also have restaurants there; people selling Okpa (bean delicacy) are there. So, how do you guarantee security there? That’s the problem.” The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, a commissioner of police, could not be reached for comment on the investigation into the attack as calls to his number indicated that it was unreachable. He had yet to respond to a text message as of the time of filing this report.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said bandits terrorising Nigeria have lost their rights to life under the constitution and must be wiped out. He also said a situation where security agencies only responded to incidents of banditry was unacceptable. The governor stated this at a town hall meeting on national security organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture held in Kaduna, with theme, “Setting Benchmark for Enhanced and National Unity in Nigeria”. He said: “The bandits are at war with Nigeria and there is no other way to approach the current insurgency but for security forces to take the war to the bandits and recover forests where they are occupying. “The security agencies mostly react to cases of banditry and abduction, we are in a war with these terrorist challenging the sovereignty of the Nigerian state. “Our security forces must collaborate to take the war to the bandits and terrorist, recover and restore the forest to enable our law abiding citizens to engage in legitimate farming and livestock production,’’ El-Rufai stated that no one in a position of responsibility could deny the need for sustained action against criminals, adding that security operations that were more proactive would cripple the outlaws and reassure ordinary citizens. He said government must identify and deal with non state-actors and others challenging the existence of the country. The governor advised that security forces should be increased and be well equipped to deal with insurgency, adding that judiciary must also be decentralised to serve justice. “To address the banditry problem, we must implement the National Livestock Transformation Plan, NLTP, already produced four years ago to enable accelerated investment in modern animal husbandry on operating rapid decentralization of herders in known locations,” he said. Governor El-Rufai also stressed the need for security agencies to be proactive in the fight against banditry and other violent crime, saying a situation where they only responded to incidents of banditry was unacceptable. He said security agencies must collaborate and take the fight to bandits and kidnappers because the country was at war with them. “The situation in which the security agencies mostly only react to cases of banditry and abduction is unacceptable. “We are in a war with these terrorists who are challenging the sovereignty and monopoly of the instruments of coercion of the Nigerian state and its territory. “Our security forces must collaborate to take the war to them, recover and restore the un-governed forests these terrorists occupy, and enable our law-abiding citizens to engage in their legitimate pursuits,’’ the governor said. He reiterated his position that bandits must be “wiped out” because they had lost their right to life, by virtue of the constitution. He said: “These bandits have lost their right to life under our constitution and must be wiped out in their entirety. There is no other way to approach the current insurgency situation today as far as governmental action is concerned.’’ According to him, the country has found itself in near-anarchy because there are too many carrots without sticks. “Notions of a common humanity, not to talk of a common citizenship are not as widely or deeply shared as it would appear. Identity politics holds sway. This reflects the absence of an elite consensus about who we are and how we should live together,” he said. The governor said more responsibilities should be given to states so that the federal government would not blamed for everything that goes wrong. “Centralised policing in a federation is not only a contradiction in terms. The state governments today bear most of the burden of the running costs of the federal police anyway, so why not the sub-nationals of the state police now. So I repeat my persistent call for state police as soon as possible. “To address the banditry prevalent in the north-west and north-central, we must implement the national livestock transformation plan already produced four years ago,’’ Governor El-Rufai said.

Renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh Muhammad Nuru Khalid, on Thursday, alleged that some influential people, including religious leaders and politicians, were the real sponsors of insecurity in some parts of the country. He stated this in Abuja during the public presentation of a book titled, ‘The Infinite Light, The Pride of Humanity,’ authored by Sheikh Fathullah Gulen a spiritual leader of Hizmet. Khalid claimed that bandits, who were predominantly youths of northern extraction, had been terrorising innocent citizens because they were getting engaged by some prominent politicians and religious leaders working towards the Balkanisation of the nation. So, he urged the government to address the issues of education and unemployment as a solution to the security challenge. The Muslim scholar said, “What the terrorists and bandits are doing is inhuman. They fuel the insecurity in the country because some politicians are working to destroy Nigeria engage them. There is a political agenda behind our insecurity. “The politics in this country has been hijacked by unscrupulous elements, who loot our resources and misuse the potentials of our youths. “Family institutions and the education system are not working in Nigeria because, upon graduation, many youths cannot find employment. “Even the professions are no longer fashionable to the youths. Look at doctors going on strike every now and then. These issues must be addressed by the authorities if Nigeria must be at peace. “More importantly, religion has been hijacked too by bad fellows who preach hatred and disunity. We cannot have peace when religion is under siege by wicked leaders.” Khalid, who is the founder of Islamic Research and Da’awah Foundation, called on the Federal Government to offer amnesty to bandits and terrorists only as a last resort. “If there is no other way to tackle the challenge of insecurity except through amnesty, we should not jettison that last option,” he stressed. Reviewing the book, Sheikh Khalid said it discussed the life of Prophet Muhammad, SAW, as a role model for humanity and a symbol of tolerance, self-sacrifice and peace. Also speaking, Sheikh Emrah Ilgen, the Vice President of Ufuk Dialogue, organizers of the event, said the book has been translated into more than 25 global languages, including Hausa; adding that it would be featured in about 129 episodes of a special Ramadan broadcast on Sunnah TV.