Christopher Oji
The Explosive Ordinance (EOD), Department of the Nigeria Police, has discovered and detonated some bombs left after the 1967 civil war in three states. The explosives were discovered in Imo, Delta and Anambra states. They were found by construction workers building in the area who reported to the police.
Commissioner of Police in charge of EOD, Maikudi Shehu, during his quarterly conference with senior officers and EOD base/unit commanders in his office in Ikeja, Lagos said: “Part of our successes after the general elections were the recovery and subsequent detonation of explosives left during the civil war in three states: Anambra, Delta, and Owerri in Imo State. The explosives were detonated without causing panic. The quantity of the explosives were would have caused lots of damages if not for the timely intervention of our department.
“That is why we are meeting today to appraise our performance, discuss our challenges and to know the way forward. The American government has just donated two vans to us. This is a great feat; the government of America will be sending experts to come and train our officers on how to operate the highly- technical vans. Our task is enormous. You can see what is happening in the North East, so, we need to up our game to meet the security challenges confronting the nation.
“As you are all aware, despite the efforts made by the Nigeria Police and other security agencies in the fight against terrorism and other criminal activities threatening the internal security of our nation, we still witness pockets of security threats capable of disrupting the unity of our dear country. This conference’s major objective is to brainstorm in other to identify operational deficiencies, evaluate strategies towards confronting and controlling emerging threats to our national security.
“The theme of this third quarterly conference ‘Curtailing internal security threat in line with global best practices,’is relevant due to the recurrent security threats in our country. It is our primary responsibility to confront and curtail insurgencies through capacity building and deployment of modern threat-monitoring equipment. We remain resolute and unwavering in our commitment to fighting all forms of criminality through continuous synergy with other security agencies .The current trend of insecurity could be tackled if we harness our combined efforts productively in the right direction.
“We must continuously re-strategise with innovations and new methodology aimed at confronting criminal activities. I, therefore, charge officers to develop a workable mechanism, intelligence gathering, new concepts and strategies to subdue criminal elements and their activities.
“We also evaluated our role in “Operation Puff Adder,” a confidence-building campaign launched by the Inspector- General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu , aimed at stopping bandits from carrying out their criminal activities. Reports from the commanders across the country were highly commendable by because of their utilisation of technical knowledge and professionalism in discharging their responsibility towards the success of the operation.
“I have also interacted with stakeholders on the need to be compliant with extant laws and regulations of regulatory ministries, department, and agencies such as Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and the Office of National Security Adviser. I charged them to cooperate with the EOD in its pursuit at ensuring a safer Nigeria free from security threats by terrorists and crime and criminal gangs, as it relates to illegal use of explosives and allied materials. More so, they must ensure that explosives/ radioactive materials do not get into the wrong hands for mischievous use.
“We are ready to do our duties, although it is enormous.
“We are at airports, seaports, and borders. You know that our borders are too large, so we have a huge task ahead of us.”