TWO days to Christmas and few weeks to the 2019 general elections, palpable fear has gripped folks in major cities of Delta Sate, as criminals are daily on the prowl, robbing, injuring and killing at will.
Worse still is the unceasing ambush and killing of policemen and the ferrying away of their rifles with no reported success of recovery by the Delta State Police Command.
Sunday Tribune reliably gathered that as of October this year, no fewer than 17 rifles confiscated from killed cops at various locations in the state are still in the hands of hoodlums.
With about 15 suspects reportedly arrested, but with the rifles yet in wrong hands, cops in the state now man their posts of patrol with the consciousness of ambush at any time from men of the underworld.
Beside the two cops reportedly macheted in Agbor with their rifles seized earlier, in September alone, two other police officers were reportedly hacked down with machetes at A-Division, Asaba and the hoodlums carted away their AK47 rifles.
In the same month, a police inspector in Ughelli was shot dead at Edogoro junction and his rifle taken away.
On September 29 at about 3:00a.m, two police officers were reportedly killed and their rifles taken away by the hoodlums at a police A-Division.
The same Saturday, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Sapele was reportedly returning from Asaba with his team when they were ambushed at the notorious Benin Bypass at Abawo and one of them killed and rifle stolen.
In the night of September 28, the Divisional Police Headquarters, Aboh, Ndokwa Local Government Area, was attacked by armed men dressed in army uniform, killed two cops and carted away arms and ammunition in the station.
At Otor-Owhe community in Isoko South Local Government Area, a police team was ambushed and two cops sustained life-threatening injuries and their rifles taken away.
In late November at Usiefurun road of Orhuwhorun in Udu Local Government Area, two MOPOLs were killed by unknown gunmen and rifles ferried away.
Lately, precisely December 12, a cop, said to be attached to MOPOL 44, Abuja, allegedly on illegal duty, was “wasted” at Jefia Estate, along PTI road in Uvwie Local Government Area of the state. His rifle was swiftly carted away by the hoodlums.
However, policemen, a senior officer in the command who said he was not authorised to speak to the press, disclosed that scores of officers are now seeking transfer from the state for fear of being killed.
Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Andrew Aniamaka, could not be reached through calls and a text message sent to his mobile phone as he requested.
But in a recent encounter with journalists, he disclosed that the Delta State government and the police command had pledged to reward anyone who provides useful information for the arrest of hoodlums snuffing lives out of police officers and making away with their rifles.
and then