No fewer than 448 persons have so far been arrested by the police in connection with the sectarian crises that rocked some states of the federation last week.
This was disclosed in Abuja yesterday by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero . Crises arising from the cartoon controversies first broke out in Katsina and later spread to other northern states including Gombe, Borno, Niger, Bauchi, sparking off reprisal attacks in Anambra State.
Speaking at an interactive session with senior police officers including the Commissioners of Police of the 36 states of the federation and Abuja in his office Ehindero said the police would “deal with suspects according to the laws of the land.”
“Those arrested for having participated or contributed in the riot in all the affected states would be prosecuted diligently. It’s not going to be a case of being granted a bail anyhow," he said. He lamented the wanton destruction left at the wake of the riots, noting that, “we are in a country with rule of law. We will use all the due process of law to ensure that justice is done. If you see how the riot started in some places, its so pathetic.”
He disclosed that 10 people were arrested in Anambra, 20 in Niger, nine in Enugu, 205 in Borno and 116 in Yobe.
Also, 33 persons were arrested in Katsina, 48 in Bauchi and 22 in Gombe.
"People should not just get up and start killing other people because of some cartoon that were printed in Europe. The rioters must be made to face the full wrath of law.
I will mobilise Police lawyers to make sure they are prosecuted, especially as the Supreme Court recently ruled that Police can prosecute suspects in any court of law in Nigeria."
Ehindero commended all the Commissioners of Police of the 36 states and Abuja for guaranteeing that the crises did not spread to other areas.”
He also commended them for the way men and officers of the Force handled the Public hearing on Constitutional Reforms which took place in six geo-political zones.
In his words, “I want to commend you for three major achievements recorded by you in recent times. The public hearing was very peaceful and I heard you mobilised your men effectively during the sittings which led to a peaceful public hearing throughout the federation. I also want to commend you on the rumoured strike of rank and file which did not take place. I heard all the efforts you all put in to ensure nothing went wron. Similarly, Let me also commend you for the spontaneous riots in some sections of the country in which some particular states were vulnerable. You handled it very well by not allowing it to escalate.”
Also yesterday, the Inspector General of Police declared that the Nigeria Police would soon launch gun detectors to be used in all motor parks in the country. He said already, preparations have been concluded to launch the detectors in the Federal
capital Territory in the next few weeks.
According to Ehindero “We want to launch the gun detectors and under vehicle mirror detectors with an aim of detecting weapons used by criminals. We are alarmed at the number of arms in circulation in the country. So we are stepping up collaborative efforts with the Custom and Immigrations as well as the State Security Service to investigate how these arms and ammunitions are getting into the country and stop it.
In January and bEbruary, we recovered 140 arms and 5,802 ammunitions from different parts of the country. And unless we do something about arms in circulation, our job is arduous.”