FENRAD condemns attack on Abia Police Station, calls on govts to raise security bar

The Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), a rights and pro-democracy group, has strongly condemned the latest incendiary attack on a police station at Abayi in Osisioma Local Government Council of Abia State on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 which left two men of the force dead.

This, FENRAD laments, is the second time in barely one month a police station is burnt down and firearms carted away by “yet-to-be identified gunmen” after a similar situation occurred at Omoba Police Station on February 1, 2021.

The group lamented that the surge in coordinated attacks against the police, its units or armoury represents just how small arms and light weapons (SALW) get into the hands of non-state actors of mostly criminal groups who in turn terrorise the state.

This recent trend which is now becoming persistent, FENRAD recalls, is the fallout of the highjacked #EndSARS protests of last year the aftermath of which created a serious security lull when some police stations were attacked by hoodlums across the nation. FENRAD also regrets that two police officers identified as Sergeant Emmanuel and Assistant Superintendent of Police Vincent lost their lives to the attack.

The situation does no one any good in Abia as it does not promote peace in any part therein. FENRAD urged the state government under Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu to give the police and other security agencies stationed at the state all the maximum measure of support they need to ensure that attacks of this scale and proportion do not happen again.

In a statement by its Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, FENRAD said having seen and studied the release by the state government through the state Commissioner of Information, “It is in order relaxing operational hours of tricylists so as to help the state and its agencies monitor crime since robbery by youngsters riding in tricycle has over time become alarming.

“Warehouses, Point of Sales (POS) terminals and innocent wayfarers (whose bags have usually been snatched) have all become soft targets for heisters.

“Since the state government has vowed not to ‘spare any resource’ in ensuring that these callous minds are fished out and prosecuted, FENRAD believes it will be a confidence-boost if these elements are captured anytime soon to face the law as this will serve as deterrent to others,” FENRAD said.

The group lamented the spate of insecurity in the State and senseless killing of police officers within the state while sending condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the slain officers.

FENRAD wishes to expressed its support to the police and other law enforcement agencies at a time like this and called on governments at all levels – both federal, state and local – and men of goodwill to ensure that those who depend on these slain officers get all the adequate compensatory support due to them so that the service of these men will not have been in vain.

The group urged state government to do its bit and utmost towards ensuring that peace and security reign in Abia and all its environs for indigenes and residents while calling on the men and officers within the state command to remain professional and desist from wanton arrest or such acts capable of breaching the peace or scaring the public.