By Lambert Tyem, with agency report
A deputy commissioner of police yesterday in Lagos expressed a tacit disagreement with the directive of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, that all checkpoints mounted by policemen nationwide should be dismantled.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, ‘B’ Department (Operations), Mr Tunde Sobulo, told newsmen in Lagos during an interactive session, that some important checkpoints must be maintained in order to check the influx of suspected terrorists, armed robbers and dangerous weapons.
The IG had exactly 10 days ago directed that the dismantling of all police checkpoints/roadblocks across the country.
Addressing assistant commissioners of police in charge of operations and criminal investigation department (CID) in all zonal and state commands of the Force on the 13th of this month in Abuja, Abubakar specifically said, among others, that “All intra-state and highway road blocks which constitute nuisance especially on the roads of Lagos, Edo and South-Eastern states should be dismantled”.
But DCP Sobulo said yesterday that, “If there is Inspector-General of Police directive that we should dismantle checkpoints, we are very conscious of that, but he did not tell us to leave the road completely.
“There is difference between do not put up road-block and leave the road completely. We still owe it a duty to put checkpoints in some important places.
“The instruction of the IG is very clear between state boundaries. I should know who are coming in to my state and know what they are carrying”, Sobulo said.
The deputy commissioner said that the Boko Haram sect, together with some criminals, are all over the country, hence everyone has to be security-conscious.
“So what you people are saying is that we should leave our borders and boundaries porous without checking what is being carried in?”, he queried.
Sobulo said that armed robberies had been reduced by 80 per cent in the entire South-West and Edo due to checkpoints mounted in strategic places.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said its checks revealed that checkpoints have yet to be dismantled by the police in some areas, including Pedro in Somolu.
Other places are Iju-Ishaga Roundabout, Oshodi, especially at Ogun-Oloko, Ladipo along Arowojobe and Alagbado Crossing at Toyin bus-Stop and at Ijegun-Ikotun link road.
Others are Ponle Bus-Stop, along Egbeda-Idimu Road, Isheri-Ijegun, as well as Isheri-Osun/Jakande Estate road.
NAN checks revealed that in most of the places, the checkpoints are mounted in the early morning, between 6 o’clock and 8 o’clock, or in the evening from 7 o’clock.
Further investigations by our reporter showed that virtually all existing checkpoints across the country, prior to the IGP’s order have remained intact, indicating that the officers and men of the Force have defied the directive by their chief.
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