In what looked like a pro-active measure, ahead of the
fast approaching Christmas and New year season,
officers and men of the Nigerian Army, the Police and
Navy may have teamed up to fight crime to a standstill
and ensure crime-free yuletide.
Already, authorities of the military cantonment in
Onitsha and their Naval Base counterpart have
assigned a patrol team each to assist the police in
patrolling all nooks and crannies of the commercial
city to foil criminal activities.
Sources from Onitsha Police Area Command confirmed
that based on the existing synergy among the security
agencies, and based on the increasing rate of crime,
the three organizations decided to team up and tackle
the trend headlong.
The source further hinted that the last-minute struggle
by some hoodlums to terrorize the inhabitants of
Onitsha in particular and Anambra state in general in
a bid to rake in some money for the celebration of the
Xmas may have drawn the attention of the security
personnel.
It was gathered that hoodlums are now operating
indiscriminately in various parts of Onitsha with arms,
particularly at nights, dispossessing their would-be
victims of all their cash and valuables under gun point,
a situation which the security agencies are not
comfortable with.
Sources confirmed that the uniformed men usually
assemble at the Police Area Command Headquarters,
Onitsha during evening hours as a take-off point,
adding that the commencement of the team-up
exercise, about a forth night ago has yielded a lot of
positive results as some of the hoodlums were either
apprehended in the act or they escape with bullet
wounds each time the military personnel storm the
robbery scene.
The Police Area Commander for Onitsha, Mr. Benjamin
Wordu, An Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP who
simply confirmed the new development to newsmen in
his office at the weekend, vowed there would be no
safe haven for such criminals in Onitsha before, during
and after the yuletide season, adding that more
strategies are being mapped out to flush out the
criminals.
The Commander of 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha,
Col. T. A. Gagariga who had just been newly promoted
to the rank of Brigadier-General, decried the menace of
some hoodlums who he said usually operate under the
name of the Movement for the Actualization of
sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB and warned such
persons to desist from their criminal acts or face the
dire consequencies.
DSP Anthony Ogar, the Commander of the Special Anti-
Robbery Squad, SARS, Okpoko Unit, near Onitsha, said
they have mapped out strategies to apprehend such
hoodlums operating in the area.


www.vanguardngr.com/2013/12/yuletide-army-police-navy-team-fight-criminals-onitsha/

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