The Command is aware of the jaundiced and highly emotional, excoriating and disparaging open letter to the Inspector-General of Police by one Ferdinand Osuofia, dated 2nd June, 2017. Ordinarily, the Command because of its tight schedule would have ignored this rather unfortunate and frivolous verbage from someone who parades himself as a public analyst, but sometimes silence ceases to be golden especially when it seeks to turn the police into a sacrificial lamb and some less discerning persons may accept a pack of lies as the truth, hence the need for this rejoinder, as it were, in order to set the records straight on the role the Command has played with respect to the unfortunate crisis in Idumuje Ugboko.
The adjective “unfortunate” is aptly used here in that the crisis should never have arisen in the first place as the principal parties in the whole brouhaha are members of the same royal family – the Nwoko family – and on a matter which the Command considers could easily have been resolved.
Tackling crisis situations, especially of the kind experienced in Idumuje-Ugboko, is tantamount to a man tackling a bad flea that has perched on his scrotum. A wise man takes utmost care in disentangling it, otherwise he destroys the scrotum while destroying the flea. Finding itself in a position where it has to wade into a sensitive family dispute, the Police Command had applied utmost discretion, choosing the application of force as a last resort, but rather employing every known peaceful overture towards finding a lasting solution to the crisis. This approach to tackling crisis, needless to say, is in tandem with the core mandate of policing as enshrined in the statutes, which the likes of Ferdinand Osuofia have perceived, ridiculed and condemned as a wrong approach to policing.
Needless to state that all the issues as raised by the writer especially as they affect the Command are egregious lies and a very cheap way of gaining undeserved popularity. For want of space and time it suffices to outline a few of them.
That the Command is colluding with Ned Nwoko to bring Idumuje-Ugboko to its knees.
That the C.P plans to arrest the immediate younger brother to the king.
That the C.P and his deputy spent entire night in the house of a politician wining and dining while thugs of the politician were having a field day in the town.
That the Police gave undue protection to Ned Nwoko’s faction in the crisis and refused to make arrests.
That the Command requested it be formally put on notice of any intention at least 24 hours before meetings are held.
That the Command sought ways to arrest the king and even brought a journalist to record the attempted arrest.
That the Police combined with foreign thugs and blocked the only entrance to Idumuje-Ugboko thereby starving its indigenes and denying them access to life outside of Idumuje-Ugboko.
A cursory look at the above points raised by the writer reveals them as a creation of febrile imagination far removed from reality. It shows the sick biases and prejudices of the writer and raises fundamental questions on his claims to be a public analyst especially against the backdrop that the write up seeks to preach hate, separation and incite one against the other.
For the records, without being immodest, let it suffice to state unequivocally that Idumuje-Ugboko is peaceful today thanks to the efforts of zone ‘5’ and Delta State police Commands.
DSP. ANIAMAKA ANDREW,
POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER,
DELTA STATE COMMAND.
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