IN Enugu State, the major problem for the police is poor living conditions. Receiving a Deputy Inspector General of Police, Aliyu Y. Kafur, who paid a visit to the Central Police Station (CPS), Enugu recently, its Divisional Police Officer, John Ike Mba lamented the poor state of facilities at the station.
Mba, who recalled that the station built in 1927, has old brick buildings occupied by regular and men of the mobile police force and their families, said that most of the buildings have existed over the years without toilet facilities. He called for rehabilitation of facilities occupied by police personnel to make them habitable and motivate officers to perform optimally.
A visit to some of the police stations and facilities they occupy with their families, reveal what they undergo daily. With foul smell oozing from the environment as a result of congestion, broken down toilets, among others, police barracks don’t offer comfort at all to their occupants.
Although it was ascertained that poor funding constituted part of the unhygenic conditions in which the police operate, however, none of the officials was willing to comment on how much they get to run their stations. Unconfirmed sources said however that to augment what they receive for their monthly operations, those at the top encourage the rank and file to mount road blocks among others.
The source said this is responsible for the high number of road blocks mounted by the police and other security agents in the southeast, stressing: “That is why no matter what anybody says about road blocks, they will not stop in Nigeria. Whatever is realized from the roadblocks, among others, is used to service the stations from time to time. You will need to buy fuel for the vehicles, for the generators, batteries, bullets, service and maintain other things. You cannot do this effectively with what they allocate to you”.
Apart from facilities, policemen on active duty have continued to fall prey to men of the underworld. Recently, a police orderly attached to the son of Enugu governor was killed along Rangers Avenue. Another police officer was felled at the Asata area and his guns removed. These came close to the killing of the former Commissioner of Police in Kwara State, Asadu in Enugu recently.
Speaking on the situation of police in the state, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amaraizu said 11 policemen have been killed in the state from last year till now. He said although government has continued to do its best with the supply of facilities to the police, they were however never enough.
“There is no time we can have enough. No matter how you look at it, the police will always ask for more because of the demands of services. We get kits on a quarterly basis and they are shared down the line. We provide accommodation if they are available. So, we cannot say it is all that bad but it can be better”, he said.
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