Christopher Oji
Retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Ambrose Aisabor, has faulted the panel of enquiry set up to investigate the killing of three policemen by the Nigerian soldiers in Taraba State.
Aisabor, in a telephone chart with Daily Sun, said it was an aberration for the panel to be headed by the police and the army as nothing tangible would come out of it.
He said there was more to the killings than meet the eyes and, as such, the government should do everything within its powers to unravel the mystery behind the dastardly act. And to do that, a neutral body should take over the enquiry.
He said the only thing that would bring positive result was a judicial panel of enquiry that would be headed by an unbiased judge
He said: “The police and army are issuing press statements and counter press statements, and accusing each other and you want the two organisations to still head the investigative panel. No, it is very wrong because you cannot be a judge in your own case. The government should know better that there has never been real cooperation between the two organisations.
“There is petty jealousy, envy, gossips, sycophancy, eye service, blackmail, high level of indiscipline, high level of individualism and battle for supremacy in the two organisations. Therefore, making them judges in their own case will create more problems than solution. We need a neutral body to carry out the enquiry and bring lasting solution to the fracas.
“The government must be serious in its enquiry as there may be someone somewhere in the payroll of the high profile kidnapper. All these are what the judicial panel of inquiry should look into.
The police should be a leading agency in the internal security of the country. It is only in Nigeria that you can see soldiers on the highways.
“As it is, the government should fund the police very well to enable them function effectively as demands by the constitution. There should be joint training and patrol among the junior officers. There should be joint seminars for security agents. There should be sporting competition among the agencies.
“If the police and the army should interface and interact and know that they are doing the same job of protecting the country, they will sit up and fight crime and criminals to a standstill.”
“There has been controversy and public outcry over the killing of three policemen, who were on essential duty to arrest a kidnap kingpin in Taraba State. The Army claimed that its troops were responding to distress calls of kidnappers abducting some people. But in a swift reaction, the Police High Command described the statement credited to the Army that its trooped were responding to a distress call when they shot the policemen as false.”