From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ensuring that peace returns to the South- East and South- South, says Deputy Inspector-General of Police in Charge of Department of Researchand Planning, Moses Ambakina Jitoboh.
Jitoboh assured residents of the two affected regions that criminal breaches in the past few weeks would soon become a thing of the past. He disclosed that the present administration of President Buhari in collaboration with the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba had set up a presidential task force tagged “Operation Restore Peace to deepen community policing in every communities in the country.
Jitoboh, who stated this in Yenagoa during an interactive session with officers, rank and file of the Bayelsa State police command, said the era of attacking police architecture was over in the country.
He, however, rated Bayelsa as the safest in terms of attacks on police formations and killing of police personnel, pointing out that the state had not recorded any case of secessionists’ action and therefore remained the safest.
“Police will ever remain the friend of the people. The constitution guarantees the power of every Nigerian to be a police and make arrest. As you witness a crime, you can make arrest. It confers on you the security privilege to make citizen arrest and call in the police,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, the state Commissioner of Police, Mike Okoli, attributed the peace existing in the state to the genuine partnership between the police formations and stakeholders in the state including the administration of Governor Douye Diri.
Okoli said the new slogan among the police is “Never Again” would men of the Police be slaughtered like chickens.”