By Peter Duru

MAKURDI —  AS part of the renewed efforts to re-brand the battered image of the Police, the Force Headquarters has subjected 60 men of its Mobile Force to Orderly Room Trial, an equivalent of a court martial in the army, for alleged brutality.

The Orderly Room Trial which has just been concluded in Makurdi was carried out by the Benue State Police Commissioner, Alhaji  Ibrahim Mohammed, on the orders of the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro.

The tried mobile policemen said to be within the ranks of Inspectors and Constables from the Taraba State Command, were alleged to have manhandled a middle aged man and 15 policemen attached to the Ukum Police Station in Benue State for an alleged traffic offence.

According to Police sources, the incident that culminated in the trial of the accused men took place few weeks ago when a detachment of the mobile policemen who were said to be on transit from their base in four 18-seater Toyota buses chased a man whom they alleged violated traffic rules to the Police Station where he ran to take refuge.

They were said to have mercilessly descended on their victim and other regular policemen who were on duty at the Ukum police station at the time and subjecting them to corporal punishment.

It was also gathered that the irate mobile policemen descended on vehicles parked at the vicinity of the station, smashing their windscreen and destroying all the valuables at the station.

The action of the men, our source hinted, almost created a break down of law and order in the locality but for the quick intervention of elders of the area.

The man at the centre of it all whose vehicle was also destroyed by the rampaging mobile policemen took his case to the Inspector-General of Office, who ordered the immediate arrest of the culprits and their committal to an Orderly Room Trial.

The affected men were immediately arrested alongside the buses they were traveling in were also impounded and kept in custody of the Benue State Police Command.

Confirming that story, the Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, Benue State Command Mr. Samuel Jinadu, told Vanguard that the trial of the affected officers have been concluded emphasizing that state Police Commissioner, Alh Ibrahim Mohammed is still awaiting the report of the proceedings for onward transmission to the Inspector General of Police.