The rate at which police stations are attacked by mobs and criminals calls for a concerted effort by stakeholders to protect police stations from criminals and arsonists.
What the citizens believe is that police stations are safe from external threats but reports of attacks on the police facilities have been brutal, daring and bloody? In most cases, security personnel found in the stations during the attacks were not spared.
Recently, a mob attacked and razed the divisional police headquarters in Ihitte/Uboma local government area of Imo state to protest alleged police killing of a youth.
In February, gunmen attacked the Obowo divisional police headquarters located in Imo state and killed two officers on duty.
The same month, hoodlums laid siege to Aboh Mbaise divisional police headquarters in the same state and set it ablaze. The officers on duty reportedly fled as the hoodlums carried out the arson on the facility.
During the Endsars protest, Oyo state police command disclosed that five stations were burnt by hoodlums during the violence that trailed the protests in the state, while Lagos state was cruelly hit during the period with twenty –five stations razed,
Last year, suspected armed robbers attacked the divisional police headquarters at Igueben, Edo state, carting away arms and ammunition and injuring two officers. the assailants reportedly used an explosive device, believed to be locally-made dynamite, to gain access to the facility.
With these incidences, there is the need to protect police stations from further violation by fortifying them.
The security hierarchy should embark on policing strategies and tactically install state-of-the-art equipment in the facilities to monitor movements in and around the stations.
Police officers on their part need to be combat-ready always and provided with essential tools such as body cameras, thermal imaging and others to foresee and forestall threats.
In October last year in France, about forty people wielding metal bars and using fireworks as projectiles, struggled to invade a police station in the Paris suburbs. Their goal was clear, but with the resolute and combat ready of the police force, the people were resisted and no cop or any of the intruders was injured.
The Nigeria police force should borrow a leaf from this policing tactics to send a message to miscreants that it would not be business at usual, if this not taken into consideration, the perpetrators will be bold enough to execute more daring acts.
There is a need for the police to work diligently to win the trust of Nigerians if quality collaborative efforts must be achieved.
Nigerians should take the protection of public property as a priority and rise to defend the facilities during attack.
Such as the case at the Edmonton police station, United Kingdom when a man rammed a vehicle into the main entrance and alighted to pour petrol in the street. Members of the public swiftly joined forces with the police to capture the man and stopped the fire from spreading.
Persons arrested in connection with attacks on police stations should be made to face the wrath of the law to serve as a deterrent to other aspiring law-breakers.
It is necessary that the national orientation agency has a critical role to play in re-orientating Nigerians on the need to protect public buildings and promote outstanding values which is part of the agency’s goals to “accurately and adequately inform; and sufficiently mobilise citizens to act in ways that promote peace and harmony”.
The situation is not beyond redemption but concerted and genuine efforts have to be made to restore the confidence of Nigerians in the country’s police force.
Fawzeeyah Kasheem
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