…move to secure public utilities
Abaniwonda Olufemi, Delta State Commissioner of Police, has revealed how the Command acted swiftly to forestall further destruction of the second Niger bridge by vandals, saying, he had to dispatch a team of Policemen to the area.
Olufemi made the revelation following the video that went viral revealing how vandals uprooted the metal fittings of the rail of the Second Niger Bridge days ago, creating death traps on the bridge.
One of the uprooted fittings of the rail was reportedly not carted away by vandals and there were fears that if not secured, the thieves would come back to carry and sell it to metal scavengers popularly known as ‘Iron condemn’.
Speaking while playing host to the Executive and some elders of the Asaba Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by Ifeanyi Olannye, the Commissioner of Police, said the despatched Police team was led by an Area Commander.
“When the news came to us on Monday, I quickly despatched my Area Commander to go and look at it and ensure that the place is secure”, he said..
He said the engineer was called and the Police team was directed to remain there until the engineer comes.
He noted that those vandalised rail fittings are so heavy and that one would wonder how the vandals were able to remove them.
He linked the vandalism to the extreme high level of drugs among the youths.
“This brings me to what I said earlier. They are on drugs. The level of abuse of drugs among our youths is extremely high.”
He noted that he played a major role towards the recent ban on metal scavengers and popularly called “iron condemn” as they are a source of criminality.
“I am not outrightly accusing them but if you look at it, they too take drugs. You can’t believe it, if you put this house, if possible in their sack, they can carry it”.
He noted that he played a major role in getting the state government enforce the ban or Okada and iron condemn following the upsurge in crime traceable to them. Since the ban and the enforcement, there is a lot of down trend in crime across the State.
“A lot of these ‘Okada’ people don’t even have registration number. Even when they commit a traffic offence, there is no way you can trace them”, he said.
He commended the Press for partnering with the Command and called for continuous partnership and community support.
Ifeanyi Olannye, the chairman, Asaba Correspondents’ Chapel of NUJ had in his address, urged the Police Command to sustain its efforts in fighting, checkmating as well as preventionn of crime, to ensure peace continue to exist in the state, especially as the ban on Okada and iron condemn has been enforced.
“We also advised that you strengthen your public relations particularly via anonymous information channels to procure and protect genuine information flow without intimidation.
“This has become necessary to protect informants from harm either from the security personnel or the culprits who may wish to harm the informants for exposing their crimes”, he noted.
