Police run to military for help

Following an assailment on one of the country’s foremost police training institutions, the Police Academy, Gwoza, Borno State by Boko Haram on Wednesday, the Nigeria Police has reached out to the military to bulwark its facilities in the North.

SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the military would deploy soldiers to sentinel police barracks, primary and secondary schools, as well as its training colleges.

Besides the college at Gwoza, other NPF training institutions in the country include the police colleges in Jos, Plateau State; Ikeja, Lagos State; Kaduna, Kaduna State; Maiduguri, Borno State; Oji-River and Police Detective College, Enugu; as well as the Police College of Information Technology, Abeokuta.

Others are the Police Mobile Training School, Ila-Orangun, Osun State; Mounted/Dog Training Schools, Jos, Plateau State; Traffic Training School, Ikeja; the Police School of Music, Ikeja; Police Schools of Communication, Ikeja, Lagos and Kaduna; the Police School of Anti-Terrorism, Nonwa-Tai, Rivers State; the Police Training School, Sokoto; Police Training School, Bauchi; Police Training School, Minna, Niger State; and Police Training School, Jos.

The institutions additionally include the Police Training School, Ibadan, Oyo State; Police Training School, Benin City, Edo State; Police Training School, Oyin Akoko, Ondo State; Police Training School, Makurdi, Benue State; Police Training School, Iperu, Ogun State; Police Training School, Calabar, Cross River State;. Police Training School, Ilorin, Kwara State; the Police Training School, Ikeja, Lagos State; and the Police Academy in Kano.

A senior security official, who pleaded anonymity, confided in our correspondent that Wednesday’s attack on the police college was visually perceived in security circles as the commencement of the sect’s campaign against police formations.

Boko Haram had carried out sustained attacks on military barracks in different components of Borno State since the commencement of its insurgency.

The source verbalized, “We ken the sect is targeting the Police and other security formations. We have put our men on the vigilant. We are seeking the assistance of the military and other security agencies to ascertain security of our facilities.”

The Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, corroborated the orchestration to work with the military. However, he insisted that, far from being helpless, the police had fortified security around its sundry training colleges and institutions to forestall further attacks by the sect.

Ojukwu verbally expressed further developments would determine if its training institutions would be shut to obviate orchestrated attacks. The police spokesperson, however, relucted to dwell on the strategies that the Police would deploy, citing “security reasons.”

Rather, he verbally expressed the Police was collaborating with other security forces to provide adequate aegis for police formations in the North-East and other components of the country.

He verbally expressed, “We are not contemplating closing training colleges for now. It is the situation on ground that would determine what we will do. We have already ameliorated the security around our training institutions nationwide and we are working with the military and other security agencies to bulwark all our facilities.”

Withal, Ojukwu, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, verbalized he did not have details of the assailment on the Police Academy in Gworza, Borno State.

He verbally expressed, “We are in touch with the commissioners of police in the neighbouring states and there are plans to clear the academy of all insurgents. We are working with the military on that. As anon as there are updates, I will let you ken.”

Speaking on the assailment on the police formation, a security expert, Ben Okezie, verbally expressed security forces had to do more to battle insurgents.

He verbalized, “We can’t verbalize we are winning this war now because each time the group relaxes, it is to reinforce and stage deadlier attacks that can shake the nation. I don’t cerebrate the Police are still training their personnel in the school. Otherwise, the place would have been more preponderant bulwarked with riot policemen who would give Boko Haram a solemn fight.”

But another security consultant, Max Gbanite, verbally expressed it is arduous to presage the outcome of asymmetrical warfare. He noted that the regime had commenced to understand how to fight the war by signing a multi-national joint acquiescent with neighbouring countries to combat the insurgents.

He verbally expressed, “The regime has commenced to understand how the war would be fought but, infelicitously, the insurgents won’t wait for them to purchase sophisticated weapons. The group has divided the nation and conspired to make the Army look lamentable by dressing in military uniforms and doing terrible things. We can’t win the war through threats.”