Arase Deploys Homicide Detectives to Rivers over Killings

Ernest Chino in Port Harcourt

The Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase, has said he has deployed a team of homicide detectives to investigate the killings in some parts of Rivers State.

He said the police would definitely fish out the people behind the killings in the state, insisting that a situation where some people take the law into their hands was unacceptable.

Arase spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt at the Shell Petroleum Development Company where he officially inaugurated the new Spy Police.

He said he had directed the state Police Command to go after the killers in the state.
Arase pointed out that a team of homicide investigators was deployed from Abuja, adding that some suspects were already being investigated.

He also expressed dissatisfaction with the proliferation of arms in the country, adding that the police would not allow hoodlums to overwhelm the state.

Arase said: “It is unacceptable for people to take the law into their hands. This is not a Hobbesian state where might is right and I have told the commissioner of police that he must go after whoever takes the life of anybody and ensure that such people are brought to book.

“Those arrested in connection with killings in Rivers are being investigated and I have dispatched a team of homicide investigators from Abuja. Whenever this thing happens, there are usually different perspectives to it.

“I have always taken a stand that the police is supposed to be apolitical. If we are going to be apolitical, we must be professional in investigating matters. That is why I have deployed a team of homicide investigators from Abuja to take over most of these cases.

“Nobody is above the law and that is one thing we have to get very clear. The law is no respecter of anybody. The proliferation of firearms in the system is unacceptable, not only in Rivers, but across the length and breadth of the country.

“This is also reflective of the international environment, but our strategies towards it is that we cannot allow a group of criminals to overwhelm the state. You can be assured that we will deal with them.

“Criminal gangs, cult groups can never overwhelm a state; it is never done and I can assure the people of this country that we are going to clamp down on these criminals. We will arrest them; we will make sure that we amputate them from our security landscape.”

He explained that the launch of the new Spy Police uniform was an initiative that had taken a while to come to fruition, saying, “But I am happy to see its proper implementation by today’s landmark event by Shell Petroleum Development Company.
“Spy Police are engaged for specific security functions within a restricted jurisdiction or operational space. Unique service numbers are given to them to distinguish them from the general police. The Spy Police remain as crucial to me as any special branch of the Police Force.”

Arase, however, thanked the management of Shell for the part they played in the launching of the Spy Police uniform, saying, “The management of SPDC has again proven that they are a set of futuristic managers determined to remain compliant with extant national policies.”

Speaking with journalists, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Musa Kimo, said calm had returned to Ahoada East where suspected cult members recently unleashed mayhem on the people.
Kimo disclosed that apart from the deploying troops in Ahoada East LGA, armoured personnel carriers were also stationed in strategic places within the area.

According to him, “We are on the ground and for now, the area is calm. We are working with the community and we are on the trail of the hoodlums.

“In no distant time, certainly, we will fish them out. We are on the ground with our troops and with armoured personnel carriers in the area (Ahoada East).”

Earlier, the Managing Director of SPDC, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said the Spy Police had grown from a small group patrolling pipelines’ right of way to a disciplined and well-structured arm of the Nigeria Police Force.
No fewer than five persons were in the early hours of yesterday killed and beheaded by suspected cultists at Edeoha community in Ahoada-East Local Government Area of Rivers State.

THISDAY gathered that the suspected cultists, who were on the trail of a popular native doctor in the community, also put their victims into one of the rooms in the native doctor’s house and set them ablaze.

A source in the community, who pleaded for anonymity, said the native doctor, who was also killed by the suspected cultists, specialised in removing bullets from victims of gunshots, adding that the victims, who were suspected to be members of a rival cult group, were in his house for treatment from gunshot wounds when the killers struck.

Acting Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mrs. Grace Iringe-Koko, said that the command was aware of cult related war but that the number of casualties remain
unknown for the moment, adding that the command had started investigation.