UROMI UNDER SIEGE

CRIME :UROMI UNDER SIEGE

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU

THERE IS A LOT OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES IN UROMI,EDO STATE AS AT PRESS TIME

This are testy times in the Esan North East Local Government  area of Edo State as the spate of crisis created by kidnappings in the land continues to have a ripple effect.

In Checks by the News Office Desk of Paedia Express Multimedia in Lagos,Nigeria,an impeccable source has told this reporter that the corruption in the State Police Command has being the major reason why the problems have not been sorted out till now.

The crisis it was gathered had being on for several years leading to a great fear and panic from among the residents of the Uromi in Edo State.

Suspected members of crime syndicates involved in kidnappings  caught and reported to the police by members and elders of Uromi community were always released without any form of prosecution.

Notorious kidnappers like Osolase Sydoff and Lucky Okonemen who were said to have been apprehended by members of the Nigerian Police were however believed to have been killed in very controversial circumstances after they had revealed details of their criminal activities underworld thus stalling further possible investigations and arrest of other culprits now believed to still be at large..

In an exclusive chat with this reporter,an indigene while lamenting the crime wave in his community said that the incident led to a great riot among the youths leading to an attack on the police station in the town with government properties worth several millions of naira razed down.

His  words:”one of the youth leaders   who led  the demonstration that led to  destruction of properties,Mr Kingsley Osemudiamhen Ihayere ,who was  also a youth leader of the Peoples Democratic Party[P.D.P]in the general elections was framed up on trump up charges by the leadership of the opposition”

“Because of their victory in the last elections ,they now want to revisit the matter that led to the destruction of public and state properties but in a crooked way”

The source added that as result of the aforementioned the law enforcement agencies in Edo State  have now declared Mr Kingsley Osemudiamen Ihayere wanted as at press time after vanishing into thin air.

The Police is  also believed to be on the look -out for other youth  leaders like Osaze Godfrey,John Ehimeh and Phillip Oboh among many others as they try to arrest the crisis before it spirals beyond control.

In a related issue,an angry mob burned down a police station in south-western Nigeria after police shot dead a driver at a checkpoint, a police spokesperson said recently.
The driver was killed in Uromi, on the outskirts of Benin City recently, according to police spokesperson Fatai Kinyomi.
Nigerian newspapers reported the incident occurred after the driver refused to pay a 40 naira (about a quarter of a dollar ] bribe at the checkpoint, an allegation Kinyomi would neither confirm nor deny.
"The motorist died ... and his colleagues mobilised and went on the rampage, looting the police station" before burning it down on Thursday, said Kinyomi, who called the riot "barbaric."
None of the rioters was arrested, and the police are looking for the officer who shot the driver, said Kinyomi. It was not clear whether the officer was in hiding.
The situation was calm on Friday, and authorities were investigating the incident, Kinyomi said.
Nigerian newspapers reported that suspects jailed in the police station were freed in the riot, and a police officer's home was burnt down.
Police killings - many of them labelled "accidental" - are common in Nigeria, as is corruption in Africa's most populous nation of over 126 million.
Many Nigerians criticise police for demanding bribes to supplement their low salaries, and not doing enough to combat high levels of armed crime.
"Nigerians see the police not as a friend, but as offenders and agents of human rights violations in the country," said a recently leaked high-level human rights report commissioned by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. - Sapa-AP