Come to our aid, Delta monarch appeals security agents

The Ugoani of Okpanam, HRM, Michael Mbanefo Ogbolu, has appealed to the Police authorities to help check the activities of hoodlums including some miscreants who have the penchant for attacking innocent persons in the town with dangerous weapons.The Ugoani, who made the appeal at the weekend in his palace in Okpanam said, “last week Friday, precisely November 23, the hoodlums came into the town in the afternoon to unleash terror on their targets whom they perceived to be their enemies.

They wielded sophisticated weapons, including assault rifles, machetes and cudgels,” he added. The hoodlums, he said attacked their target with cutlass and other dangerous weapons and for over an hour they broke into the houses of such perceived enemies, destroyed their properties.

“What bothered me most was that, on hearing of the attack, I put a call across to the Divisional Police Officer in the local government but he failed to pick his call, only to call back after the attackers had gone, with an excuse,” the Ugoani lamented.Expressing disappointment on the Police inability to check the menace of the hoodlums in the community; the Ugoani said those involved inthe dastardly   act were well known to the police and indigenes of the community, adding that, “it was therefore worrisome that the Police seem unable to check the menace, it has become a culture for the Police to arrest people for crime, grant them bail and they come back into the town to commit more havoc.”

In a letter dated November 29, 2016, Titled:  :Cocktail of violent attacks against Obodogba quarters, Okpanam…” addressed to the Delta state Police Commissioner, the Ugoani complained of a violent attack on indigenes of Obodogba quarters of Okpanam, masterminded by one of the sons of Okpanam (name withheld).

He drew the attention of the Police Commissioner to the fact that, in September, 2016, the said indigene who allegedly led the hoodlums was arrested by men and officers of the Police Command on account of malicious attack on innocent members of the pubic, which left in its wake, destruction of private property and infliction of varied degrees of injuries on innocent persons.

The Ugoani disclosed that, but in the wisdom of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (|Legal), Delta State Police Command, the said leader of the hoodlums’ was handed to him on bail, with caveat that he should take him home to reconcile him with members of his community before contemplation of legal options.

He said, after the Police wise counsel, he set in motion a penal to listen to his complains and those of other stakeholders but, unfortunately, he refused to show up before the panel to make his submission while other stakeholders did.

He said, he has now intensified attack on the community, using the border line between Ibusa and Okpanam towns as spring board.
The Ugoani, therefore, appealed to the Police Commissioner to use his good office to address the frequent cases of attacks on Okpanam once and for all, adding that the community and the Ugoani-in Council are ready to cooperate with the Police in this direction.

But in a swift reaction, the Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim said all efforts have been put in place especially ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations to bring to book hoodlums terrorizing the state adding “Okpanam community is fully under our control and we will do every thing possible to bring all the hoodlums to book, the police are not lazy, we are working and it has been shown in the last few months, as we have arrested over 130 suspects in kidnapping, robbery,
human trafficking and others.”