WITH three days to Christmas and few weeks to the 2019 general elections, palpable fear has gripped communities in major cities of Delta State 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.
TribuneOnline 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 reportedly arrested 15 suspects, 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.
Besides 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.
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On Saturday, September 29 at about 3:00 a.m, two police officers were reportedly killed and their rifles made 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. Only a female cop, who feigned flood victim, escaped unhurt. Others escaped into the woods with fatal injuries.
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.
And 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.
There are several other unreported cases of heinous killings of policemen, who were carrying out their constitutional duties across the state with their stolen rifles now being used by hoodlums to harass the people ahead of the Yuletide and 2019 general elections.
With these ongoing, folks, as well as uniformed men, now live in fear in the state especially Warri and environs which have practically become a den of petty thieves, robbers and cultists who are on the prowl.
Worsening the fear was the recent partial dismantling of roadblocks at army checkpoints which, people believe, has sent a wrong signal to criminals that they could have a free day with their vices.
However, policemen, as gathered from a very senior officer in the command who’s not authorized to speak to the press, disclosed that scores of officers are now seeking transfers from the state for fear of being killed.
“When a policeman kills an armed robber and he dies, the command will join to harass the killer-policeman. They will investigate and quiz him for killing an armed robber.
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“But when an armed robber kills a policeman, the command sits down, look and begin to ask for contributions for the bereaved wife and children.
“And those that are ready to work, they push them off balance and frustrate them.
“Right now, many police officers are looking for transfer out of the state because the killings are gradually getting out of hand. The hoodlums are entering everywhere including Warri,” the officer lamented.
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 chat 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.
The immediate past Commissioner of Police of the state, Muhammadu Mustafa, before he was redeployed from the state some days ago, said 30 internal measures were put in place to halt the trend, but the killing of policemen has not ended either has stealing of rifles by the killer-hoodlums stopped.
Neither have crimes abated in Warri, especially as TribuneOnline can authoritatively report that ahead of Christmas and the general elections, young boys armed with shotguns, in some cases, have practically taken over Warri streets, snatching phones, money, from people with the aide of tricycles amid nearly non-existent police patrols.
and then