Edo CP Solicits NUJ Support in Crime Fighting

By Lucky Isibor

Edo State Commissioner of Police, CP. Johnson Babatunde Kokumo, has solicited the support of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Edo State Council to reduce crimes and criminality in the state through adequate information gathering and dissemination.

CP Kokumo who resumed in the state last week made the appeal Monday when he led other top officers of his command on a courtesy call to the Union’s Secretariat in Benin City.

He said the police in the state cannot do the work of combating crimes and reducing it to the barest minimum alone without the help of the media thus necessitating the collaboration. 

“My main purpose of coming here, is to make myself known to my brothers and sisters here, of the NUJ. We must have met in various places informally but I deemed it fit to be here in official capacity for me to know you and for you to know me.

“And as I said before now, my main objective of coming here is to solicit for your assistance. Your assistance in all forms because Edo Police command cannot possibly do this job alone without your support and understanding. 

“I want to solicit for your assistance. I want synergy between Edo state police and NUJ Edo state chapter. I want to have in place a form of a collaborative effort between the Edo state police and NUJ so that, together, we can fight crimes and criminality in the state,” he said.

The police boss said he was going to partner communities and other sister agencies to rid the state of all bad elements.

“I would want to say in clear terms, we are going to partner with the communities. And the partnership with the communities will be in three phases. We will partner with the traditional rulers, we will partner with the religious leaders, we will partner with market women, professional bodies, NUT, NUJ.

“We will do all these because information is very key. Information is very key in fighting crime and criminality in any environment. I want to put this across to you in some instances, one vital information is much better than 1000 AK47 riffle. For this reason, we are going to partner communities.

Edo State Police Commissioner, Johnson Babatunde Kokumo

“We are going to seriously partner with sister security agencies because this job we cannot do it alone. We are going to partner the Army, Military, Civil Defense, Custom and Immigration”, he said.  

He said the command under his watch would ensure that officers and men of the command live above board and show respect for the rights of the citizens of the state.

“We will begin our zero tolerance on corruption by cleansing our house. Enough is enough. We will not tolerate a situation where the good people of Edo will go to police formation and they cannot secure the release of suspect on bails without parting with money. There will not be any forms of pecuniary consideration when it comes to releasing suspect on bail in bailable circumstance. We are putting machinery in place to ensure this is stopped”, he said.

On his part, chairman, NUJ Edo State Council, Sir Roland Osakue assured the Commissioner of Police of the union’s maximum support. He however called on him to reinstate the stakeholders meeting which was initiated by his predecessor but abandoned half way adding that it has helped reduced crimes and criminality in the state.