Nigeria Content Online

Inspector-General
of Police Hafiz Ringim has said that the Boko Haram crisis is a
challenge to the police and other security agencies. He stated that the
police must therefore do all in its power to find a solution to the
security challenges in the country. Addressing senior police officers
from the rank of commissioner of police upwards at the IG Conference at
the Force Headquarters, Abuja yesterday, Mr. Ringim said that “the
police was most challenged by the Boko Haram crisis in Borno and Bauchi
states as well the social upheaval in Plateau State.”

“The police must
remain resolute and should not be dragged into the political/social
crisis in the different parts of the country,” he said.

Mr. Ringim also
said that the federal government has resolved to end the crisis in a
short time, through the provision of 450 vehicles and motorcycles to
security agencies in the area for enhanced operations and intelligence
gathering. The vehicles, he added, would be delivered to them within
one week, even as he assured that normalcy would return to the troubled
states very soon. He explained that the conference of senior officers
was called to brainstorm on the security situation in the country and
proffer ideas and strategies on how it could be addressed, noting that
the solutions to the crisis in parts of the country depended on good
thinking and performance of security agencies. The police boss
therefore tasked the participants to suggest ideas and strategies that
could help the police to combat the security problems in the country.
Mr. Ringim however praised his officers for their classic performance
during the nationwide party primaries, particularly the People’s
Democratic Party convention in Abuja, in which, according to him, no
police officer was indicted for partisanship.

Borno Killings

However, less
than 24 hours after a senior police officer was killed in Maiduguri,
another officer was shot dead on Tuesday night in Biu, Biu Local
Government Area of Borno. The officer, a constable, was shot dead at
about 11.00 pm while on duty at the residence of the divisional police
officer in the area. Lawal Abdullahi, the public relations officer of
Borno Police command, confirmed the incident in Maiduguri on Wednesday,
saying that the constable was shot by gunmen on motor bikes who had
attacked the DPO’s residence at night. A deputy superintendent of
police, simply identified as Gadzama, was also shot dead by gunmen on
Tuesday in Maiduguri at about 12 noon. His 6-year-old daughter, who was
with him at the time of the attack, sustained injuries.

Bauchi Arrest

The Bauchi State
Police Command has also arraigned 28 suspects for allegedly
participating in the killing of some victims and destruction of
property during the Jan. 27 mayhem in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi. The
suspects, led by Paul Luka and 27 others, were alleged to have
conspired and killed some innocent victims and destroyed property worth
millions of naira. The prosecutor, Sabon-Kasuwa Husseini, told the
Chief Magistrate’s Court that the suspects committed the offence with
the connivance of one Mustafa Adamu, alias “Black”, Usuman Musa and
Dang Ayuba, all of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area, now at large.

He said the three
suspects, who were in possession of dangerous weapons, arms and
ammunition, conspired with 25 others, currently in prison custody, to
commit the crime. All the accused declined to enter any plea, and Mr.
Husseini urged the court to adjourn the case to a later date to enable
the police to conclude their investigations.

The Chief Magistrate, Aliyu Usman, adjourned the case till March 1, and ordered that the suspects be remanded in prison custody.