Owerri: In the aftermath of the Easter Monday attack on the Imo State Police Command Headquarters and the Owerri Correctional Facility, the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Nasiru Mohammed, and his top officers have been booted out. Mohammed was removed alongside the Deputy Commissioner, Operations, Ilyasu Yahaya; and Assistant Commissioner for Operation, James Aikai
A senior police officer said the CP was found to have neglected to ask for reinforcement from Mobile Police Squadrons 18 and 64 and the military during the attack carried out by unknown gunmen.
The security source stated, “Apart from failing to act on the intelligence provided to him about two weeks ago, the CP also failed to draft the Mobile Police Force on standby during the attack. There were PMF Squadrons 18 and 64 in the state, but the commissioner did not signal any of them to assist in repelling the attack. This is gross negligence.
“The CP, DCP and ACP Operations were all redeployed while the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Administration, is the acting CP now. They were redeployed to Abuja because you can’t send incompetent officers to any state.”
From Information at our disposal, the Joint Security Task Force in the state codenamed, Operation Search and Flush, had not been active following the failure of the state government to pay the men allowances and provide the necessary logistics.
It was learnt that the task force members drawn from the Police, Civil Defence, Navy, Army, Mobile Police and others, were being owed eight months’ allowances by the state government.
A source said, “The joint security team used to assist the command in gathering intelligence and operations, but the state government abandoned the structure and allowed it to collapse. They have not been paid for over eight months and the state also did not fuel their vehicles. So, they stopped working; the intelligence gathering of the state is down.”
Our correspondent was informed that the premises of the Imo State Police Command headquarters had been taken over by pubs and restaurants and shops with the female police officers selling all manners of wares inside their vehicles parked within the grounds.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, a commissioner of police, could not be reached for comment on the investigation into the attack as calls to his number indicated that it was unreachable. He had yet to respond to a text message as of the time of filing this report
