LAW ENFORCEMENT 11/12/2023
Ondo Crisis: We Won’t Condone Break Down of Law, Order – AIG
The new Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 17 comprising Ondo and Ekiti States, Williams Adebowale, weekend, warned against the breakdown of law and order by groups planning to protest the political logjam in the state.
Adebowale, said intelligence officers have been deployed to ensure the prevention of political crises anytime there is a lapse.
Speaking with newsmen in Akure, he blamed those benefitting from the crisis for allowing it to fester despite the intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He assured residents of Ondo that the police are adequately monitoring the political crisis in the state to ensure peace.
According to him, “I believe things are back to normal but the command is monitoring the situation and when need demand, our intelligence officers are on the ground to ensure that they prevent crisis anytime there is a lapse.
“Either we like it or not, some people benefit in crisis and they are the ones that want the crisis to happen, so it is for us to ensure that we don’t allow it.”
Speaking on next year’s governorship election in the state, the police chief,said “We are preparing and we will make sure the environment is peaceful for every political party, either for campaign or election. We monitor the politicians and the political parties and their activities”, he added.
Adebowale promised to provide maximum security for commuters travelling on the Akure/Ikere/Ado road which has become a notorious route for armed hoodlums and other criminalities.
He promised to supervise the state commands to ensure they function more effectively by analysing the crime situation, especially in respect of Kidnapping along Ondo-Ekiti road especially Ita-Ogbolu.
“We will look at the matrix and the statistics of what happened in the past few months, the spread of the crime, the area where certain crimes used to occur so that we will be able to work proactively to prevent possibly the crime from occurring and ensure prompt response to where they occur.”
Adebowale, also, assured that zone 17, under his watch, would collaborate with the Western Security Network Agency, codenamed Amotekun, and other security agencies in the States Amotekun with a relationship with other security agencies to ensure peaceful environment.
“We’ve visited the Amotekun and we let them know that we will continue the relationship that exists and we will also improve on it because no agency can do it alone, it is when we work together that we can ensure that the people of the state enjoy a peaceful environment.
“All people want is a peaceful environment, it is for us to work together to maintain and improve the level of security within the zone”, he stressed.
The AIG declared that the zone under his watch would not condone any act of corruption and indiscipline from officers and men, that would dent the image of the force.
“We will continue to look inward to ensure that we don’t allow any bad egg in police or sweep under the carpet where officers have done things unprofessional.
“It is the directive of the Inspector General of Police that we must always ensure that we keep a tap on our boys and make sure they are punished every time they misbehave or commit any offence against indiscipline.
“It is a challenge to every other person to expose any colleague who misbehaves for punishment.
“People come in with their character when they join the police but we ensure that we constantly monitor our officers and we ensure they stay within the procedure and the regulations of the police force, every other agency is expected to be disciplined because their officers carried guns and it is not the interest of anybody to cover them, it is just as if someone is sitting on the keg of gun powder.
Adebowale said ” That is why we don’t take indiscipline lightly, and we have zero tolerance for indiscipline.