- When an ACP dies and we cannot do anything about it
When an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) dies after a gun attack by mysterious gunmen, it is a sure signal of insecurity. The death of ACP Usman Ndanbabo, who was in charge of Ughelli Area Command, should trigger a security alarm. A report said: “Security sources said the late Ndanbabo was shot twice by a gang of gunmen in a Toyota car who trailed him to the roundabout opposite the palace of the Ovie of Ughelli while driving in his Nissan SUV.” He died two days later.
This is a grave development that deserves an urgent response. It is reassuring that the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim, relocated to Ughelli in a rapid response. The police chief was quoted as saying: “I have relocated to Ughelli and moved a Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of about 57 personnel there. There is nothing for now and no arrest has been made. We have to be very discreet but we have a very good lead, and, by the grace of God, we will apprehend the perpetrators.”
The tragic incident of May 7 is particularly alarming because it reportedly “came on the heels of kidnappings, armed robberies and cult-related activities in Ughelli.” Two recent incidents that highlighted insecurity in the state are still fresh in the public consciousness.
This report gives an insight into the chain of security minuses: “One of such attacks on policemen is the November 6, 2016, incident when a policeman from the Ughelli Area Command was shot dead at a roadblock along Agbarha-Otor Road, following an assault on them by a gang of suspected armed robbers apparently returning from an operation.”
The report continued: ”Two months after that incident, precisely January 23, 2017, Ndanbabo took a bitter pill as a gang of herdsmen engaged him and a team of policemen in a gun duel at Ohoro in Ughelli North Local Government Area when they went to implement an ultimatum by residents of the community issued to herdsmen to vacate the community.” A police officer at the Ughelli Area Command was quoted as saying: ”A gun duel ensued between the herdsmen and the police team. At the end of the incident, we could not account for two police officers and three rifles while the late ACP, who mysteriously slumped, was rescued from the scene of the incident and taken to a private clinic in Ughelli for medical attention.” Two days after this clash, locals discovered the remains of one of the policemen; the decomposed remains of the second officer were discovered some days later.
Evidently, the authorities need to tackle the developing climate of insecurity in the state. The situation suggests embryonic anarchy; it should not be allowed to degenerate into something worse.
It is thought-provoking that the level of insecurity indicated by the killing of ACP Ndanbabo is connected with a state regarded as rich on account of its status as a major oil-producing state. It bespeaks a poverty of ideas at the leadership level, if the state, despite its resources, lacks a social plan that will discourage crime as well as ensure security.
The government must respond to the undesirable insecurity not only by adopting tough measures against criminality but also by conceptualising and implementing a social development agenda that will help to prevent criminality.
It needs to be emphasised that the police must take the investigation of Ndanbabo’s killing to a logical conclusion, which means his killers must not be allowed to escape justice. Apprehending the killers and making them pay for their violent crime are non-negotiable; the police must pursue these with focus. This must not happen again.
