By Amaechi Okwara
Asaba
Delta state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Alkali Baba Usman, yesterday said the command was suffering from acute shortage of fire arms, ammunition, tear-gas and barracks accommodation.
Usman stated this in Asaba, the Delta state capital, during the familiarisation tour of the command by the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of zone ‘5’, Mr. Musa Daura.
He, however, begged the AIG Daura for additional manpower from Edo and Bayelsa states command to assist them beef up the security on ground in upcoming local government council election, Saturday, October 25, 2014.
Usman listed some of the challenges that are currently a hindrance to the command’s operational performance to include the serious shortage of manpower, the emerging security demand, especially in the wake of kidnapping and the demand for police services by the top government functionaries.
He said: “There are also acute shortage of fire arms, ammunition and teargas in the command. It therefore, becomes crucial to request for more supply of these weapons as the nation prepares for the general elections.”
However, he said because of the acute shortage of barracks accommodation for officers of the command especially the two obile
squadrons, 31 PMF Ogwashi-uku and 51 PMF Oghara, it cannot mobilise. enough men in the time of emergency as most men live outside barracks.
He said: “Upon taken over of duty in the command, I discovered that security measures put in place by my predecessor, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, have helped in no small way to reducing the level of crime, especially kidnapping and armed robbery. We are fine-tuning those that need to be fine-tuned so as to make the state a no-go area for miscreants.”
AIG Daura commended the state police boss for the measures put in place to fight criminality in the state.
“I am so impressed with the performance of the commissioner of police and his management team, if other commands will emulate the way he is handling the situation most particularly the crime rate, I believe it will be a crime free zone.”
“On our part, we are making sure that armed robbers and kidnappers are reduced to the barest minimum.”