By Kingsley Nwezeh
Former Governor of Bayelsa State and Senator representing Bayelsa West Senatorial District, Senator Seriake Dickson, yesterday condemned the mindless attacks and killing of policemen and security agents in the country.
Senator Dickson called on those behind the heinous acts to stop the savage attacks on innocent policemen and other security officers deployed to carry out their constitutional responsibility of securing the nation.
The senator spoke during a solidarity visit to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Usman Alkali, and the top leadership of the force at the Louis Edet House Police Headquarters, Abuja.
He condemned “the dastardly acts of aggression and terrorism visited on police formations, killing of police officers and men and vandalising of police properties and other government facilities”.
He said: “this is a very trying period in the life of our country and particularly for the police and I thought that I should be here as the policeman that I always will be to show support
to show concern and to join in condemning these acts of aggression visited on law abiding people doing their best to protect citizens of our country.
“I want to also use this opportunity to call for a cessation of all such attacks on police formations, officers and men that are going on in some parts of our country and to tell everybody that the police are not your problem, the police are not your enemies”.
The senator said: “police officers and men are your brothers and sisters from all parts of our country. I was also one of them so I consider it as something that could have happened to me too.”
He called for more funding to the police to put the force in the position to procure equipment and organise regular training for the men for optimum performance.
Dickson said the police remained the most critical frontline law enforcement and security agency with the widest spread across the country in the campaign against crime and should be given the deserved attention in the area of funding.
According to him, “any country where the police is undermined and neglected, where the police is not funded, where the police officers are not trained properly, where the police officers have no equipment to work with, where the police officers have low morale, cannot have security”.
Dickson, who commended the IGP and his team for doing a wonderful job even at this trying period assured them that the nation was with them in the goal of securing the nation.
“Once again, I appreciate the IG, his officers and men for trying their best at this very difficult circumstances and I also use this opportunity to remind our nation and all of us who are in leadership that the sooner we go back to funding of the police as it was in those days, the better for everybody.
“This is because the police is the only institution that has presence in all our communities and yet their vehicles cannot run, they do not even have vehicles. Where they have vehicles, they cannot fuel or maintain them and they have low morale. They have no money to train and equip them. You cannot have security in a nation like that, ” he said.
