The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Inspector

  • Police reveal identity of inspector killed in Ekiti

    The police have revealed identity of the officer killed in an attack by gunmen suspected to be robbers on Friday night in an attack on Ido Ekiti Police Station, Ekiti State.

    The officer, Inspector Taiwo Oloniniyi, was gunned down by hoodlums while on duty about 7.25 pm.

    Two others were seriously injured in the attack, and their weapons stolen from the armory.

    Police spokesman Alberto Adeyemi said police authorities have paid a condolence visit to the family of the late officer.

    Adeyemi, who said no arrest has been made, added that investigation was on to unmask perpetrators of the attack.

    Barely two days after, Ido Ekiti is calm. But residents are yet to recover from the incident, as they called on relevant authorities to ensure their safety.

    A source said the incident formed prayer points in some churches yesterday, as  worshippers prayed against a repeat of the attack.

    Governor Ayo Fayose, in his reaction, expressed sadness at the incident and commiserated with the police, family of the deceased.

    Speaking while appearing on his monthly media chat, “Meet Your Governor”, Fayose said Ekiti was experiencing shortage of policemen because officers refused posting to the state.

    Fayose said: “We don’t have enough policemen in the state and I think it might be because this is not a state where you can get so much from.”

  • Inspector, three others killed as gunmen attack bank customer

    Inspector, three others killed as gunmen attack bank customer

    •Police arrest suspect

    Some gunmen yesterday killed a police Inspector and a civilian on Okunola Street in Idimu, Lagos.

    The Inspector was shot while he was withdrawing money from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at a bank.

    Two of the robbers were killed while fleeing on their motorcycle. One, who was identified as Gaffaru Ismail was arrested by Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives and mobile policemen in the area.

    It was gathered that the gunmen had robbed a bank customer of the money which he withdrew inside the banking hall.

    The gunmen, numbering four, were said to have stormed the area around 11am and went straight to the said customer who was leaving the bank.

    It was learnt that they had successfully fleeced their victim and were escaping when they sighted the Inspector using the ATM and shot him on the head, apparently to stop him from engaging them.

    The Nation gathered that people around rushed the Inspector to a hospital where he was confirmed dead, while other policemen stationed at the bank called for reinforcement.

    Although one of the suspects escaped, the police team that chased the others gunned down two and arrested one of them alive.

    Their motorcycles, as well as two guns were recovered from them.

    The suspect who were initially taken to the Area M command in Idimu, was later transferred to the command headquarters with the recovered items in two vans marked BDG158EE and KWL424NS

    A police source said the armed robbers have an insider source at the bank.

    “There is someone in the bank who usually informs them when a customer comes to collect huge money. The way they came, it was clear that they had information and knew exactly who to target

    “The suspect that was arrested was the one who shot the Inspector,” he said.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP) said the case has been transferred to Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for appropriate action.

  • Inspector held for ‘forging’ colleagues’ promotion signals

    Inspector held for ‘forging’ colleagues’ promotion signals

    A Supernumerary (SPU) Police Inspector, Felix Igba, has been arrested for allegedly issuing forged promotion signals to some of his colleagues.

    Igba was said to have collected N30,000 per SPY policeman for the signal promoting each officer.

    It was gathered that the signal which purportedly emanated from the Force Welfare Department, was signed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) with the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID).

    Disturbed by the wide circulation of the forged promotion signals, ACP Omolara Oloruntola, it was learnt, complained last October 28, provoking investigation by the police command.

    Upon interrogation, Igba allegedly confessed that the N30,000 collected from each officer was remitted to one Supol Africa, allegedly serving at the Force Headquarters Annex.

    Igba, who was paraded on Friday by Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni could, however, not give the whereabouts of the said Supol Africa.

    He could not also explain how he obtained police rank and badge, which he is not entitled to as a spy.

  • Police Inspector murdered in former Deputy Speaker Ihedioha’s house

    An inspector, Mohammed Useni attached to the Asokoro, Abuja residence of the immediate past House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, has been murdered .

    The victim who hailed from Jigawa State was strangled to death at his duty post at the residence on Monday and his rifle, an AK47, taken away by the people who killed him.

    The death of the security officer which came a few days after the withdrawal of the officers of the Department of State Services attached to Ihedioha, has thrown residents of the area into fear and confusion.

    Ihedioha was Deputy Speaker in the 7th House and also contested the last governorship election in Imo State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

    Ihedioha was reportedly away during the inspector’s murder.

    The FCT Command Police Public Relations Officer, Anjuguri Manzah, said he was unaware of the incident when contacted by The Nation.

    Oke Epia, Chief Press Secretary to the former deputy speaker, also said he was not aware of the matter as he had just returned from a foreign journey.

    However,sources said that apart from the victim, another policeman was on duty on the fateful day although he claimed to be in another part of the extensive compound when the murder occurred.

    The body of the officer is said to have been deposited in an undisclosed morgue pending further investigation.

    Investigation is on to however find the killers and the motive behind the gruesome act, The Nation learnt.

    This was because apart from taking away the rifle of the officer, the assailants allegedly removed some of the victim’s body parts including hands and other sensitive parts and went away with them.

  • Inspector, two others killed in Benin

    A police Inspector, Dikko Yakubu, a woman thrift collector and a tricyclist were  killed yesterday at various parts of Benin City.

    Dikko, who was the Officer in Charge (Anti-Robbery), Okhoro Police Division, was killed by robbers at Ugbowo.

    The thrift collector was said to have been shot on James Watt Road.

    She was accosted by two men who attempted to collect her purse, but she resisted and was shot in the head.

    Policemen from the Oba Market police station took her body to the Central Hospital mortuary.

    The tricyclist, identified as Kingsley James, was killed at his Uwelu home by suspected assassins.

    Kingsley (31) and a father of two was killed when the killers broke into his apartment and shot him.

    His body was taken to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital mortuary.

    Police spokesman Noble Uwoh confirmed the killings but said he was yet to get full details.

  • Letter to Inspector General of Police

    Letter to Inspector General of Police

    SIR: I, like many people in Nigeria, heaved a sigh of relief when you were appointed the Inspector General of Police. Within a few days you ordered the removal of police roadblocks through which policemen had been bleeding the civilian population with illegal road tolls and taxes, and you moved around the fat-cat Commissioners of Police into whose pockets these illegal tolls and taxes usually found their way.

    You have generally been an IGP who addresses issues the way a thoughtful IGP should, indicating considerable analytical thought in your words and actions. I was however shocked to know that you recently authorised your Commissioners of Police to crack down on all vehicles with tinted windscreens, as if buying a car with tinted glasses is a crime in Nigeria. If it is a crime, and since most of such cars are imported, should the Nigeria Customs not prohibit the importation of cars with tinted windscreens? In your opinion, is there a difference between factory-tinted car glasses and glass-tints applied locally in Nigeria? Finally is there any empirical evidence linking crime and use of vehicles with tinted glasses?

    I ask these questions because in the past two weeks, those of us living in the South-east and South-south states have been besieged by hordes of police men mounting road blocks, stopping cars and extorting money from motorists whose cars have tinted windscreens. Between March 29 and April 10, I was stopped about 20 times while travelling through Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Rivers States. In each case I patiently showed the police men the letter I had from Police Force Headquarters in Abuja dated December 14, 2007, permitting me to use a car with tinted windscreens. Each time, I was told that the new directive from the IGP made no allowance for such letters and that my vehicle would be seized unless a paid a substantial amount for its freedom. In most cases I was delayed for about 15 minutes and allowed to go when I paid a token toll of five hundred naira. In Port Harcourt I was threatened with being taken to the mobile court. When I asked to taken to the mobile court, the police man let me go “on compassionate grounds of age”.

    I was using my SUV with factory-tinted windscreens in the USA before I shipped it to Nigeria in 2007. I subsequently obtained the authorisation letter from Police Headquarters in 2007 and have been using the vehicle ever since I returned to Nigeria in 2009. With your new instruction, what am I supposed to do? How do approach the impossible task of removing the factory tint from the glasses? Do I now buy plain windscreen glasses to replace the six tinted windscreens in my car? At what cost and to what avail?

    I write you on behalf of millions of Nigerians who have vehicles with factory-tinted windscreens to reconsider that crackdown on such factory-tinted glasses. It is not as if we went out to a glass technician and asked for the windscreens to be tinted and can thus remove them as and when we like. I, like most of my compatriots in this dilemma, cannot afford the N200,000 to N300,000 it will cost to replace these windscreens. In any case your police men should do their work well; kidnappers do not keep their victims in the front or back seats of tinted vehicles. They put them in the booths or trunks of vehicles.

     

    • Dr. Emmanuel Nwokolo,

    Port Harcourt

     

  • Gunmen kill Police Inspector, seven others in Borno

    Gunmen believed to be men of the radical Islamic extremist network Boko Haram on Monday night killed eight people including a police Inspector, in Borno State.

    The attack in Gwoza, a village in northeastern Borno state, saw fighters arrive in two trucks and open fire.

    A security official told The Associated Press that the Boko Haram gunmen killed seven civilians and a police inspectors. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly with journalists.

    Gwoza resident Umaru Yahuza said the fighters targeted a bank and the police station in the village.

    Boko Haram is waging a guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings across northern Nigeria. The government has been unable to stop the attacks, despite deploying more police and soldiers.

     

  • Robbers kill ASP, Inspector in Lagos

    Robbers kill ASP, Inspector in Lagos

    •Police parades 130 hoodlums

    An Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and an Inspector fell yesterday under robbers’ bullets in new Oko-Oba, Agege, a Lagos suburb. The Police Command claimed last night that two robbers were also killed.

    The officers reportedly displayed rare bravery as they engaged the robbers despite their superior firepower.

    It was gathered that four policemen were on patrol around 2am when they sighted; a Hilux pick-up and two Toyota Sienna buses which they mistook for their Area Commander’s.

    Police sources said they parked as a mark of honour for their presumed boss, only to be at from the vehicles.

    The ASP and the Inspector, who were said to have taken cover behind the patrol van, returned fire.

    Source said the robbers hit the ASP in the leg and he fell down and the robbers riddled his body with bullets.

    The Inspector was also gunned down; the others, a Sergeant and a Corporal, escaped.

    The Nation learnt that a reinforcement arrived at the scene after the robbers had fled.

    Another version of the incident said the patrol team was on its way to respond to a distress call when the bandits, who were in three vehicles, opened fire on them at Paying Junction near Olaniyi street.

    Police spokesperson Ngozi Braide confirmed the death of the police officers, adding that two of the robbers were also killed. The command has arrested 130 suspected members of a robbery syndicate known as “One Million Boys.”

    A few weeks ago, residents of Ajegunle sent a distress call to the Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, on the gang, which they claimed has been terrorising the suburb.

    The suspects were brought into the Command Headquarters in a Black Maria and two commercial vehicles.

    Weapons recovered from them included five live ammunition, two double barrel guns, and 10 machetes.

    Parading the suspects, Manko said their arrest was the fulfillment of his promise to get them.

    Their arrest, he said, followed a raid of night clubs, a hotel, and Boundary in Ajegunle. He said a bag of weed suspected to be Indian hemp, one pistol, and a gun accessory were recovered. Manko assured the residents that the police would not relent until all the hoodlums are flushed out.

    Some of the suspects claimed the “real armed robbers” ran away during the raid, denying that they are not members of the notorious gang.

    A suspect, Onyekachi Amaechi, said the gun recovered from his compound belongs to a gang member he identified as Sanni. He said Sanni kept the gun there while on the run. According to him, residents that do not have “reasonable amount” risk torture, maiming, and raping by the gang.

    Emmanuel Monday, 17, and Jude Ifegun 18, both residents of Ladiga Street, denied being members of the gang. They claimed they were arrested because they kept late night.