Ebonyi
State Government says she is no more comfortable with the men of the Nigeria
police and other security personnel serving in the state, who disobey her
orders and legitimate laws of the land with impunity.
The
State Commissioner for Works and Transport, (name withheld) made the
government’s feelings known, after I had presented myself to him as a mass
communication student from Ebonyi State University, on the mission for information
gathering for the publication of “THE WATCH” in his office.
He
said that it is worrisome that the people who supposed to be at the vanguard of
enforcing the law through exemplary behaviour, are the core offenders, and
wondered how much a society would survive where law enforcement agents are
those breaking the law they are employed to protect.
The
Commissioner further explained that the double lane issue as it affects
motor-cycle operators was not a witch-hunt exercise by the government but aimed
at protecting the lives and properties of the citizenry as a whole.
“Governments
aim was not to exempt anybody” he went on, “but to avoid a situation whereby
criminals would cash in on such a loophole to carryout their activities”
He
appealed to the vibrant journalists to use the media channels to help them
carry the ministry’s message to the appropriate quarters of the security
agencies to call their men to order to avoid an unnecessary confrontation.
In
his contribution, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, (name withheld), argued that the action of the government in
banning cyclists along the double lanes within the major roads of the state
capital has helped the security agencies to keep crime and criminal activities
in check, thereby receiving the glory of a crime free state than the state
government and questioned why they are destroying such a good idea that helps
to give them a nice name.
According
to the permanent secretary, when their motorcycles are impounded, they
abandoned them.
When
I visited to the ministry gate where the impounded motorcycles were kept, I saw
a huge number of impounded motorcycles, which the ninety percent of them belong
to the security men, who have refused to claim them”.
Earlier
in a remarks, the writer made it very clear to the commissioner that his visit
to the ministry was to see how “The
Watch” could help carry on the ministry’s programme of transforming the
state to the grassroots through it’s wide circulation.