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From JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has justified the arrest of 20 suspects allegedly behind the March 8 crisis that led to the clash between Yoruba and Hausa traders in the Sabo area of Ile-Ife in Osun State.
The crisis left about 40 people dead, many injured and properties destroyed. The Police had paraded 20 indigenes of Ile-Ife in Abuja, attracting condemnation of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere.
The IG who met with President Buhari in the State House to brief him on efforts to curtail insecurity in the country, said crime does not recognise ethnicity.
Asked to react to the allegation that his men arrested only one section of people involved in the crisis, he said, “You know we are police officers, crime has no tribe, if you are a criminal, you are a criminal, crime has no face, we don’t look at crime in the identity of where you are coming from. As far as you are a criminal and the police find you wanting, we apply the law.”
When told that it appeared the police had no strategy fighting crimes but only react when the crisis must have happened, he replied, “You know some of these crises, we have to look at the origin of these crises and the immediate causes for you to make a proper classification of the crimes. If you follow some of these crimes, they are just crimes that happened without any warning, if you look at that Ife crisis, if you see how it started, it’s just a disagreement between two people selling food along the road. So, you have to look at the dynamics of the country itself. Obviously when you have such situation, we have to react to it. We had to move in to ensure we provide some security to the people.”
Idris who said he briefed the president on the deployment strategies to some of the flash points all over the country, especially Benue, Kaduna and Ile-Ife said the Police was working round the clock to restore peace to the affected areas.
Speaking on Benue specifically, the Police boss said, “We deployed mobile police units on the 16th of this month to the recent incident that happened at Zaki Biam. There are allegations on one Gana, he has been on the police wanted list for a while now, I decided to deploy some special units to fish him out by all means. We are definitely going to get him.”
Asked to clarify if the attackers were herdsmen, Idris said, “No, I don’t think it’s Fulani herdsmen, it was the activity of a criminal who is using some of his criminal gangs in the state to harrass people and I have assured the governor that the situation was under control when I met with him few days ago.”
The Police boss also spoke about insecurity in Kogi State. “The crisis in Kogi axis is not kidnapping, it’s a case of militants wanting to disrupt the peace in that state and we are out to get them.”
Asked if the President gave specific directives, he replied, “Obviously, there should be a specific directive to ensure that all of us use all the facilities at our disposal to make sure that some of these incidents we are talking about are brought under control as soon as possible. I gave the President my assurance that we are going to do that. Like I said, we have deployed a special squad in Benue and we are surely going to get that Gana within a short time.”
