Attack on Convoys: Lives of Policemen Also Matter

Last Monday’s attack on the convoy of former Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State, which resulted in the death of four policemen was the most recent in a series of tragic deaths of policemen attached to the convoys of very important personalities, writes Louis Achi

In late November, 2022, at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, while inaugurating an administrative block for the 26 Squadron Police Mobile Force, an apparently worried Inspector-General of Police (IG), Usman Baba, called for prayers for men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force. Given the prevailing security challenges in the country, police officers and men had become endangered species and needed prayers for protection and guidance, he explained.

If the IG’s supplication has received some divine acknowledgement, this has certainly not been reflected in the series of continuous deaths being recorded by his personnel while escorting very important personalities cosily ensconced in their fancy armoured limousines.

On Monday, January 2, 2023, some gunmen attacked a convoy of a former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, killing four of his police security details. The convoy was intercepted at Oriagu in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of the state. While Ohakim narrowly escaped with two of his children in his bullet-proof vehicle, his backup security vehicle was attacked resulting in the death of the four policemen.

“We were driving between Isiala Mbano and Ehime Mbano. These people blocked us at a place called Umualumaku,” a shell-shocked Ohakim later narrated, insisting his attackers were professionals and not amateurs. “They attacked us from behind and were firing at our vehicles consistently. I thought I was a dead man and I was with two of my children – my son and daughter.

“What saved me was the bulletproof vehicle. That I am alive today is by the special grace of God and the bulletproof vehicle. But unfortunately for me they killed four of our boys (policemen), including the driver.”

It could be recalled that on Friday, October 21, 2022, gunmen attacked the convoy of Apostle Johnson Suleman near Auchi on his way from Benin-City after arriving from Tanzania on a foreign mission. Apostle Suleman is the Founder and General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries, a mega church based in Auchi, Edo State.

Seven people were killed in the attack including three police officers and others including a little girl. Besides God`s unquestionable and limitless power to protect, Apostle Suleman and all those who escaped the assassins` deadly flak were inside bullet-proof vehicles which proved impenetrable to the bullets meant to destroy them.

In Apostle Suleman’s words: “I just escaped an assassination attempt where seven people were killed. My car was attacked. They opened fire on my car, and kept spraying it with bullets. My wife and my kids were there. The escort car, with some police – they killed the policeman. They killed the other people in the other escort car and the buses with us. Seven people – we were all moving in a convoy – were killed.”

Again, as in other deadly ambush attacks, the decisive factor that saved Ifeanyi Ubah, the senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District was because he rode in a bullet-proof vehicle.

The police high command right from the IG flowing down to zonal commanders, police commissioners, area commanders, unit heads and divisional police officers can hardly deny knowledge that that many police officers are officially engaged in guard duties. These personnel trained and kitted by the Nigerian state should be deployed only to their formal operational environments.

According to former Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 5, Benin, Rasheed Akintunde, in 2018 only 20 per cent of police officers were engaged in the core policing duties while 80 per cent provide security for individuals, businesses and government officials.

More, former IG and ex-Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Mike Okiro, revealed that more than half of police officers are confined to private guard duties. He emphatically condemned the quirky practice of some former ministers retaining police escorts many years after leaving public service.

Significantly, successive orders by every succeeding IG to stop the devious trend have never been implemented. Curiously, under the present IG, Usman Baba, and President Muhammadu Buhari, the trend has been sustained.

It is worth noting that with the nation’s inadequate 371,000 police officers to protect over 210 million people, dissipating this small number to secure a privileged few is a practice that must be stopped. Worse, in an environment reeling from the extreme depredations of kidnappers, bandits, cultists, Boko Haram, ISWAP and other terrorist groups, what little police energy available must be committed to man its core mandate.

Clearly because they hugely benefit from this governance abnormality, the national parliament cannot be expected to offer genuine intervention.

Statutorily, only a few current public office holders are entitled to personal protection. These include the President, Vice-President, governors, their deputies, principal officers of the federal and state legislatures, judges, ministers, and a few other public officials.

Many of the individuals dominating the police protection space ought to opt for private security services. Outside very special circumstances, such as witness protection, while engaged in state assignments or during public demonstrations, it is anomalous to deploy police to private persons.

Police officers are a creation of the Nigerian constitution. The Police Service Commission (PSC) should evolve stringent guidelines defining those entitled to its service and redefine applicable rules for police officers on personal security duties.

On its part, the government should encourage a thriving private security business sector by creating an enabling environment to nurture it. Liberalisation of the private security industry under a robust regulatory framework should be on the cards.

Ultimately these measures would have an impact in reducing loss of policemen on private security assignments. After all, the lives of policemen also matter.