…IGP deploys IRT to fish out killers
It was a bad day for the Nigeria Police Force as gunmen suspected to be militants killed the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Agudama- Ekepetiama police station in Yenagoa Local Govett Area of Bayelsa State and three officers, including a pregnant policewoman. Two others were seriously injured.
Similarly, two officers of the police mobile unit (MOPOL) were killed and their guns are taken away in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Also, two civilians sustained bullet wounds when gunmen struck yesterday along Timber-by Ojoto road, within Mile 2 Diobu, in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of the state.
Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has ordered the immediate deployment of crack detectives from the IGP-Intelligence Response Unit (IRT), the Forensic and Homicide sections of the FCID and Special Operatives of the Marine Police Department to Yenagoa to complement the efforts of the Bayelsa State Police Command in carrying out discrete investigation into the unfortunate incident. According to investigations, the gunmen had invaded the police station, which does not have a perimeter fence, from the bank of the river and caught the policemen on duty unawares, shooting two of them to death.
They were said to have taken the DPO, Mr. Ola Rossana, to the armory and ensured they took all the guns and ammunition before they forced him to kneel down and killed him. Thereafter, they moved from one room to the other room searching for policemen believed to be hiding there. It was in one of the rooms they killed the pregnant policewoman, Joy Wellington. Two other policemen on patrol in the community heard the gunshots and rushed down to the station where they had a gun duel with the gunmen, inflicting bullet wounds on them and also suffered fatal wounds, and are now in critical condition at a hospital.
A reinforcement police team from Yenagoa, the capital of the state, arrived too late as the bandits had escaped through the river in a waiting speedboat. Community sources said the attack on the police station could be a reprisal by suspected militants arrested for kidnapping by the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) but were released under questionable circumstances at the headquarters in Yenagoa.
The secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, Mr. Kemela Okara, stated that the government received the news with shock and disbelief. Okara, who incidentally is from the area, said the government would not spare any effort to bring the perpetrators to book. Sources said that the two police officers killed in Rivers State were inside a Toyota Camry Car accompanying a vehicle conveying cash to the bank when gunmen ambushed them.
The two civilians, who sustained bullet injuries, were drivers of the two vehicles. They were later rushed to a nearby hospital, while the remains of the police officers, who were first taken to the Iloabuchi-Azikiwe Police Station, were later deposited in a mortuary. However, the state police command is yet to confirm the killing of the two policemen.
Irked by the killing of the four officers in Bayelsa State, Adamu has ordered a massive manhunt for the perpetrators of the dastardly act. Force public relations officer, Frank Mba, who made this known said the IGP, while condoling with the families of the slain police officers, described the incident as a classic example of the risk and sacrifices police operatives are exposed to in their daily task of protecting our homeland.
