By Edwin Odeh
The chairperson, Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) Delta State, Hajiya Batul Muhammad Mustafa, who is also the wife of the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Muhammad Mustafa, has solicited for synergy and co-operation from all stakeholders to assist the police in giving relevant and credible information on the activities of criminals and their hide-outs to ease the work of policing and ensure a safe environment for peaceful co-existence and for business to thrive.
Hajiya Batul Mustafa made this assertion on the occasion of her familiarization tour/Barracks inspection and two days working visit to the Warri Area Command, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Divisions, Warri recently.
According to her, other purpose of her visit include to familiarize herself with POWA/PWA in the divisions, listen to their problems with a view to proffering solutions.
Furthermore, to inspect the barracks and enlighten occupants on the need to live in a neat and healthy environment, noting that there is a common saying that “cleanliness is next to Godliness”.
She also stressed on the need for them to live peacefully with their neighbours as their closest brothers and sisters.
Hajiya Mustafa expressed her profound appreciation to both the senior and junior police officers of the divisions and the command at large for the support and co-operation given to her husband, the Commissioner of Police, Delta State Police Command since his assumption of office in the state.
To her POWA/PWA members, she expressed gratitude to them for supporting their husbands as they assume the role of both fathers and mothers when they are out performing official duties and also making the home conducive for them on their return. “I urge you all to conduct yourselves properly at all times and anywhere you find yourselves, be disciplined, contented, demonstrate good character worthy of emulation and above all, be prayerful and give your children proper training, the society will be proud of you”, she stated.
The Delta state POWA Chairperson appealed to senior police officers, as well as the junior ones to release their wives to attend POWA/PWA monthly meetings, as there is much to gain.
She enumerated some of the objectives of POWA/PWA as follows:-
To sponsor and promote ideas, initiatives and programmes that will bring about social development and behavioral change in the society.
To provide and expand opportunities through access to education, skills training and empowerment.
To be humanitarian, philanthropic and charitable and to cater and help the needy and vulnerable members of the society.
She further stated that it is her believe that police officers having been informed of the activities of POWA/PWA will from henceforth encourage their wives to be part of the Assocation. “I am very much aware of the accommodation problem which has made it difficult for officers to live with their families, but I am of the opinion that monthly visitation of wives to their husbands to attend meetings and finding out the welfare of their husbands can help to strengthen the bond of relationship between them, she said.
While appreciating the DPOs for their support towards hosting of POWA monthly meetings and provision of vehicles to convey their members to meeting at Asaba, she finally expressed thanks to the DPOs, officers and men, PCRC members, traditional rulers, members of the Hausa Community, Vigilante, Anti-Cult members, representatives of associations and communities, and all invited guests for leaving their engagements to accord her and her team a rousing welcome.
Earlier, Assistant Commissioner of Police Muhammad Shaba, Commander, Warri Area Command said in his welcome address that the officers and men feel humble to have her in their midst as her presence will further boost their moral and give them hope and psychological upliftment to fight crime to a standstill in Warri Area Command.
According to him, Warri Area Command is made up of six Divisional Headquarters, which are located within the metropolis as follows:- ‘A’ Division Warri, ‘B’ Division Warri, Ebrumede Division; Enerhen Division; Ekpan Division and Ugborikoko Division, having jurisdiction over the following local government areas: Warri South LGA and Uvwie LGA. ACP Muhammad Shaba revealed that the major ethnic groups found within these areas are the Itsekiris, the Ijaws, the Urhobos and other multi-lingual ethnic groups that have established their presence over the years.
Thus, he said policing in area such as this poses its own peculiar challenges and Warri being the centre of the evolving civilization has all manners of persons engage in their human activities, which criminals are not excluded from these persons.
The Area Commander however informed Hajiya Mustafa that criminal activities in these areas have been brought to near zero level.
He stated that this was achieved through a robust collaboration between the police and other security agencies, as well as the PCRC and the vigilantes. He further revealed that the Area Command recently adopted a kind of community policing where members of the public are encouraged to call the Area Commander, the DPOs or other officers to report any criminal occurrence.
“The response time from us is usually five minutes, as our patrol teams are used to respond to such distress calls promptly”, he emphasized.
Other proactive measures adopted are intensive patrols, the beat systems, sustained raiding of identified black spots, surveillance and of course objective investigation.
So far, the crime preventive measures adopted have yielded many successes in the areas of foiling many armed robbery and kidnaping attempts, the recovery of countless number of abandoned vehicles which have been released to their established owners, the recovery of arms and ammunition and the rescue of victims of kidnaping. ACP Muhammad Shaba also mentioned that most recently the patrol teams smashed an armed robbery syndicate and recovered four AK 47 riffles and large quantity of live ammunition and that the Warri Area Command is determined to sustain the tempo and even improve on it.
“The Area Commander and his DPOs, the O/C QRS, the O/C Marine and the O/C Bomb, the various Patrol and Guard Officers and in fact the entire officers and men are not giving chance to crime and criminality in Warri Area Command”, ACP Shaba maintained.
In a nutshell, he said “Ma, its important to let you know that this is the first time, in the history of this Area Command, for nearly a decade, that we had the most peaceful yuletide season free of criminal activity”.
In conclusion, the Area Commander noted that while the Area Command is blessed with three Barracks namely “A” Division Warri Police Barracks, Ebrumede Police Barracks and Effurun Division Police Barracks, all other Divisions have no Barracks and so their work force jostle for places in the already over crowded existing barracks. Thus, many officers and men live in far flung places to their place of work.
The negative effect this accommodation problem had on security is that on emergency situation, it is always difficult to secure the manpower needed to tackle such situation. Equally the Barracks education is no longer inculcated into the men and women because they live outside the barracks which in a way, breeds indiscipline among officers and men.
