* Says incessant killings of policemen portrays Nigeria as weak, failing nation
Alex Enumah in Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force, led by the Inspector General (IG) of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, have been tasked on finding quick and lasting solution to the increasing menace of gunmen in the country.
A rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), who gave the charge on Sunday, warned that the incessant killings of police operatives in the country by gunmen is fast portraying Nigeria as a weak and failing nation.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, spoke at a press conference in Abuja, on the recent gruesome murder of a serving policeman, Inspector Celestine Oriodovwe, by dare-devil gangs in Enugu State.
While lamenting the loss of three policemen attached to an Edo-based cleric, Apostle Johnson Suleman in Auchi, Edo State last Friday, the group called on the government and the police “to work out and implement far reaching strategies to minimise and possibly eliminate the phenomenon and indeed the epidemic of coordinated assassination of the police operatives and the destruction of strategic national security assets of Nigeria”.
According to Onwubiko, the authorities should embark on special trainings that would address identified skill gaps, as well as provide personnel with essential safety and protective equipment, adding that the three policemen would not have died if they were putting on bullet-proof vests and protective head gear.
HURIWA however called for a logical conclusion of investigations and subsequent prosecution of those arrested in connection with the kidnap and eventual murder of the late Inspector Oriodovwe.
“The fruit certainly doesn’t fall far from the tree. We are also reliably informed that some arrests have been made and that the investigation by the “Zone 13 A Team” is progressing, despite influence peddling from very high quarters.
“In fact, this press conference is further necessitated by the continuous call from those quarters, attempting to apply enough pressure for the release of the arrested suspects,” he said.
While assuring Nigerians that HURIWA will be monitoring the progress of the investigation and will be updating members of the public at every juncture, Onwubiko expressed the belief that “solving the singular murder of Inspector Celestine Oriodovwe will also ensure justice in the murders of Comrade Kelvin Ezeoha and the final year Business Administration student of the Enugu State University of Technology, Mr. Chidera Ogaba, who were brutally murdered at an APC reconciliation meeting in January this year, within the same catchment that these criminals have been operating.
“We are also sure it will provide insight and closure into the earlier murders of the trio of Nnaemeka Agbo, Nnamani Ikpa and Sunday Nnamani, who were presumably murdered by the de-facto leader of this syndicate- (name withheld) and declared wanted by the Nigeria Police Force”.
