Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has put all zonal Assistant Inspectors General of Police and State’s Commissioners of Police in the North to be on alert to thwart any attempt by any persons of group to cause civil disturbances following the threat by northern youth to Igbos to quit the North.
The IGP also ordered the arrest of those behind Tuesday’s three-month eviction notice even as he charged various State Police Commands to begin manhunt for them saying “Anybody, individual or group that attempts to prevent any Nigerian from carrying out his daily activities, the constitution vests in us, the responsibilities to ensure that those guys are stopped by all means.”
Idris spoke at the Force Headquarters, during a meeting with DIGs, AIGs and CPs of the 36 states and Abuja.
He said, “I think the Nigerian Police Force have responsibility to stop these groups and I think the announcement was made by some groups that called themselves by Arewa; nobody has that authority to stop any Nigerian from participating or to reside in any part of this country.
“It is a constitutional rights and I believe it is illegal and I think as CPs, AIGs of commands we have responsibility to ensure that these groups do not sort of prevent other Nigerians from exercising their individual rights.
“I think it is very important and I want to use this opportunity to call all of you to prevent some of these groups that obviously are acting outside the constitution of the law of this country, “he charged.
Emphasizing on the need to deal with the threat Idris said: “Like I observed, no individual or group have authority to stop any Nigerians from pursuing his daily bread in any part of this country, because these are rights that are guaranteed by the constitution and we are not going to allow some of these groups to carry out these threats. These are the issues that we are here to discuss”.
“I want all of us to be alert, to note that anybody, individual or any group that attempts to prevent any Nigerian from carrying out his daily activities, we have responsibilities to ensure that those guys are stopped by all means.”
“As a Nigerian, no group or authority has a right to prevent any Nigerian from doing its daily activities, either movement or association which are legal anyway.
Read Also:
He vowed that the police would tackle the threat of the Arewa youths through adoption of similar measures it used in handling the agitation of the Movement for the Emancipation of Sovereign People of Biafra and the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, when they came up.
His words, “On the issue of the threat, of course you see the procedure that we adopted in dealing with the problem when this IPOB thing came up last month. We are adopting the same procedure.
“We are just trying to ensure that no individual causes confusion in this country because making some of these threats constitutes subversive activities against the security of the state and we cannot allow that to happen.
“Obviously, we are going to conduct investigation into it but you observe that one state government has issued a directive to the security agencies. Of course, you are aware that some of the security agencies in the state include our commissioners of police because they are members of the state security council from their various individual states.
“That is why I am issuing that order to all of them, as CPs. They are to ensure that the directive issued by the Kaduna State governor is carried out as far as there is an impediment to the law of this country.
“It is a directive and an authority on them to ensure that where these groups are seen, obviously we have the security to arrest them and that is what I am telling them now as I am sitting here, that all our CPs should arrest any of these persons or groups.
“I think they mentioned some dates, we have to be very conscious of those dates and ensure that those individual or groups can’t hold down this country to sort of actualize those threats they made, we cannot allow it.”
The IGP said a task force has been set up to check abuses of siren users, spy plate number users and tinted glass users as these were now being used for criminal activities.
He added that a new unit, the Terrorism Investigation Unit has been set up by the Police High Command with the mandate of investigate the sources of arms for terrorists, source of IEDS making materials that is strapped to young girls to commit suicide bombings.
He said the purpose of the unit is preventive as well as complementing efforts of other security agencies in the fight against terrorism.
He warned Police Formations in the country particularly zonal, states and Divisional headquarter to beef up security at these headquarters to avoid robbers who such police facilities to demobilize the police before targeting banks and other financial concerns.
END
