Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development FENRAD, a rights and pro-democracy group, strongly condemns the latest incendiary attack on a police station at Abayi in Osisioma Local Government Council of Abia State in the wee small hours of Tuesday, February 23, 2021 which left two men of the force dead.
This, FENRAD laments, represents the second time in barely one month a police station is burnt down and firearms carted away by “yet-to-be identified gunmen” after a similar situation occured at Omoba Police Station on February 1, 2021.
In a press statement signed by it’s Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, FENRAD said the surge in coordinated attacks against the police, its units or armoury represents just how small arms and light weapons (SALW) get into the hands of non-state actors of mostly criminal groups who in turn terrorise the state.
This recent trend which is now becoming persistent, FENRAD recalls, is the fallout of the highjacked EndSARS protests of last year – 2020 – aftermath of which created a serious security lull when some police stations were attacked by hoodlums across the nation.
FENRAD also regrets that two police officers identified as: Sergeant (Sgt) Emmanuel and Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Vincent lost their lives to this attack.
The situation does no one any good in Abia as it does not promote peace in any part therein.
FENRAD urges the state government under Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu PhD, to give the police and other security agencies stationed at the state all the maximum measure of support they need to ensure attacks this scale and proportion do not happen again.
Having seen and studied the release by the state government – from the state commissioner of information – FENRAD believes it is in order relaxing operational hours of tricylists so as to help the state and its agencies monitor crime since robbery by youngsters riding in tricycle has over time become alarming.
Warehouses, Point of Sales (POS) terminals and innocent wayfarers (whose bags have usually been snatched) have all become soft targets for heisters.
Since the state government has vowed not to “spare any resource” in ensuring that these callous minds are fished out and prosecuted, FENRAD believes it will be a confidence boost if these elements are captured anytime soon to face the law as this will serve as deterrent to others.
Once again, FENRAD laments the spate of insecurity in Abia State and senseless killing of police officers within the state while sending condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the slain officers.
FENRAD wishes to express categorically its support to the police and other law enforcement agencies at a time like this and calls on governments at all levels – both federal, state and local – and men of goodwill to ensure that those who depend on these slain officers get all the adequate compensatory support due to them so that the service of these men will not have been in vain.
Lastly, FENRAD urges state government to do its bit and utmost towards ensuring that peace and security reign in Abia and all its environs for indigens and residents while calling on the men and officers within the state command to remain professional and desist from wanton arrest or such acts capable of breaching the peace or scaring the public.
