THAT the oil city of Warri  Delta State  is perhaps the most hazardous metropolis in Southern Nigeria is doubtless. What baffles those who know the geography of the area is that security agents have not been able to map out effective strategies, over the years,  to wipe out the rampaging criminals or at least, reduce the wave of their escapades.

Warri, which  sits on the bank of the Niger-Delta and  is  the major oil city  in Delta state  is  inhabited principally by the Itsekiris, Urhobos and Ijaws, but other ethnic groups also have considerable presence  in the locale. However, it has expanded due to infrastructural development to include communities such as Ekpan, Effurun, Ovwian, Aladja, Osubi, in Uwvie, Udu, Okpe local government areas of the state and can boast of the presence of the a batallion of soldiers in Effurun Barracks of the Nigerian Army,  a military Joint Task Force, police, Navy, SSS, Delta Waterways Security Committee, DWSC and other security agencies.

The Delta State Police Command admitted, not too long ago, that 21 police officers, including an Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP,  were killed by armed robbers in the state, last year. About half, if not more of the number were killed in Warri axis alone, and this year, 2012,  more have been killed.

The audacity with which armed robbers and kidnappers operate in Warri is mind boggling and the question on the lips of many is: Do we have security agencies in Warri?

Information at the disposal of Saturday Vanguard indicated that there is a new gang of  unemployed graduate bandits/kidnappers in Warri. The gang has its hideout, a lodge that has a tall fence with a security wire, where they hold their victims hostage and call their families to bring ransom to secure their freedom.

Kidnappers’ den

A man who was recently abducted in his Toyota Sienna bus  told friends in whispers after his release how the graduate hoodlums, masked his face and took him to an unidentified house, where he was kept for several days until his family raised N2 million for his freedom. He said on the first night of his “capture”, the bandits took his car to Abraka, also in the state,  for a robbery operation and came back to the den in Warri successfully. In his presence, a woman who was similarly kidnapped was  brought to the hideaway, and contact was made with her family for N3 million before she was freed.

He said he had no option than to contact his family to raise  N2 million by all means, as the hoodlums, who said they were not after his life, but his money, threatened  to kill him if in 48 hours, the ransom was not handed over to them.

According to our source, “They monitored the wife of the man who went to the bank to withdraw the money. They called her on phone and told her after the withdrawal, ‘you have just withdrawn money. We don’t know the amount yet. You are on Warri-Sapele Road. We are seeing you. Keep going. Get to Effurun roundabout and proceed to Agharho. We are watching you. If you make any phone call, your husband is dead.

“Apparently, the kidnappers have an insider working with them who was following the woman. At  a point before Agbarho,  they called her on phone again and  asked her to stop the car, open the bonnet as if the car was faulty   and  also pretend as if she was stranded on the roadside. Some minutes after, they drove to the spot, introduced themselves as the kidnappers of her husband and asked her to bring the N2 million. They assured  her as they sped off  that her husband would be released as soon as they got back to base in Warri”, the source disclosed.

Bank robberies, nabbing a kidnap lord

Besides kidnappers, bank robbers have also diversified their operations, killing four persons, including an accountant of one of the banks, last week, in Warri.

Commissioner relocates to Warri

Delta State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Mamman Tsafe, since the resumption of duty of the acting  Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, has made Warri his stamping ground, vowing to take the battle to the den of criminals.

Last week, an armed robbery kingpin, believed to be the most  notorious kidnapper  in the oil city of Warri and environs,   popularly known as Jackson, fell into police net, just as the police shot dead one of the bandits that recently killed and snatched a rifle from policemen in the state.

Delta Waterways  had been on the trail of Jackson for a long time and in conjuction with the police, had carried out raids on suspected hideouts of the suspect until he was picked up last week. He holds the key to many kidnap and robbery cases in the Warri axis.

Saturday Vanguard learnt that  Jackson , who had been on the wanted list of security agencies in the state was picked up through the combined efforts of citizens, who contacted soldiers at the Effurun Barracks, Warri. He had been on the run over the murder of one Bernard Abugewa, a brother to a former local government chairman of Uvwie local government area.

While the homicide detectives from the State  Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Asaba are handling the murder case, the police in Warri are reportedly waiting for them to finish so as to commence with the avalanche of kidnap cases against the kingpin.

Commissioner Tsafe confirmed  the police had been trailing  Jackson for sometime now  in respect of kidnap, murder and armed robbery cases in Warri and different parts of the state.

Mr. Tsafe told Saturday Vanguard that suspected kidnappers attempted to kidnap one Chief Joseph Odjeni  of No 96 Orhwohorun, last weekend, but it  was foiled  by both the police in Ovwian Police Division  and youths in the community. According to him, an  Ak 47 rifle, registration number, 16094 with 15 rounds of live ammunition  and  a Toyota Camry car were recovered by the police.

Though, the police arrested, penultimate week, in Warri,  a three-man gang of sea pirates that specialized in operating in army uniforms, the bloody encounter and killing of some members of  another  gang of bandits that had killed a number of  policemen and snatched  their rifles in the past, delighted the commissioner.

Two of the suspects died in the encounter and the police recovered an AK 47 rifle that was snatched from a police corporal, who was shot dead, January.

He said the bandits  had snatched a white Hilux with registration number, Lagos DN 815 JJJ, owned by one Rev O.J. Agbara at about 11.00 pm, during the week in Warri. But a patrol team got a tip off and immediately pursued them. The police and robbers exchanged gunfire near the Ekpan shrine during which three of the bandits were fatally wounded.

The police rifle with registration number 24811 with police coloured magazine and 11 rounds of ammunition , which was snatched from late Corporal Ernest Ubong, attached to the Zonal Task Force ,  but posted to Beans Hotel Ekpan, was recovered.

Bank officials collude with criminals!

Tsafe also met with managers of banks in the oil city over the increase in attacks on bank customers, particularly after withdrawals, last weekend.

He, however, shocked the bank managers when he told them that some of their tellers, (read cashiers) were conspiring with robbers to rob their customers.

The commissioner said that he was not fabricating the information, as some of the bandits arrested by the police had squealed on how they got information about withdrawals by customers.

He said analysis of  robbery cases  relating to banks in Warri were  not that armed robbers broke into banks, but mostly that they trailed their victims from the banks to their homes or somewhere on the road, where they attacked them.

One of the managers divulged to a police officer at the meeting  how a customer who withdrew money from his bank was trailed to his home by bandits in camoflauge military uniform, and was told to bring out the money he just withdrew. When the men said the exact amount of money the man withdrew, he had no option than to surrender the cash because he knew they were dead right on their information.

Regarding last weekend’s killing of a bank accountant and three others in Effurun, the police boss said he was aghast that the bank did not deem it necessary to ask for a police escort , while it was transferring a huge amount of money, saying, in a situation where some bank tellers pass information to robbers, it was easy for the hoodlums to launch attack, and that was exactly what was done last Saturday.

The meeting with the bank managers was, nevertheless, a hometruth telling session in which the bank officials and the police told themselves some scatching truths. The bankers spoke about how some policemen deployed to their banks hide their weapons and even  prefer to be in plain clothes, rather than take positions in visible areas of the bank,  where criminals  will sight them and at least, have some modicum of fear before deciding whether to strike or  not.

The problem with police in Warri

Investigations by Saturday Vanguard, however, showed that in  Warri axis, the police need to carry out some reorganization before they can successfully confront criminals.

Some policemen are simply agents of criminals. If you pass information to the police, they expose you to the same hoodlums who come after you after paying their way out.

Some of the senior police officers  are also  trading with policemen under their jurisdiction and not interested in combating crime. While a number of them are doing their best, they are those whose focus is just making money.

Until Tsafe raised dust, last weekend, over the attack that led to the killing of four persons, there was no permanent nipping point on the  most notorious bad spot in Warri, which is the Refinery Road /Navy Barracks link Road, despite the directive of the Area Commander, Warri, to the Ekpan Police Division to do so, six months ago.

In fact,  the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and some other top citizens of the state were on the neck of the police boss over the audacious manner last weekend’s  operation was carried out by the bandits.

It was gathered that Ekpan in Uvwie Local Government Area  is the weakest link in police combat operations in Warri at the moment  and the situation was not so under the former Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Mr. Mohammed Muazu, recently redeployed to Lagos.

“Can you imagine”, an angry police officer told Saturday Vanguard in Asaba, “Ekpan Police Division with about over 290 policemen has the highest police deployment in the state and you cannot  find up to 100 policemen from this division on the streets doing crime prevention. Go and find out, at least 200 policemen in Ekpan are deployed to guard  private companies and wealthy individuals.

“The truth is that some police officers prefer the deals that give them money than preventing crime or fighting armed robbbers. This the problem, Tsafe has to fight this problem in  the Warri bloc.

“I can tell you that it was after last Saturday’s operation by the bandits that Tsafe  had to practically force the Ekpan police division to set up permanent nipping points at the intersection of Warri_Sapele Road on Ovie Palace Road junction, NNPC  Housing Complex –Road to Airport Road and other black spots. The situation before now is that  the official posting will show that policemen are there, but in reality, there is no nipping point on ground”, he added.

How crime, politics thrive in Warri
While admitting the fault on the part of police, a senior police officer, who preferred anonymity told Saturday Vanguard that the real problem “is the mentality of the average Warri man”. In his words, “Most people here have taken crime as a way of life. So it is difficult to tackle crime in an area,  where if you are pursuing a criminal and he runs into a compound, the people there will hide him instead of surrendering him to  the police. They find it difficult to give out information to the police and they know the criminals, this is the problem. Police are not magicians, they need information to work with”.

According to the police officer, “All these people that call themselves youth leaders in Warri, majority of them are  criminals. Before they ascended to that position, they have been involved in one criminal act or the other, they have guns and it is with the guns that they climbed to power, and every youth in Warri is aspiring to be a youth leader of his community, so they acquire guns and engage in criminal activities to raise money to run for elections and dominate others.  That is the root of it all. Ekpan is a case study. So there is a political aspect to crime in Warri, which  the police is not in a position to deal with.”

Police not equipped

He said the policemen on the streets were the exact replica of the society that produced them and even when it is wrong for a policeman to collect N20 bribe on the road, people should ask questions and find out if  the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, provide money to the anti_crime patrol teams to buy petrol for the vehicles they used to patrol.

According to him, “You talk about some policemen hiding when they see armed robbers, do you know that the guns we carry are toys compared to the sophisticated weapons armed bandits carry and most of  them do not have bullet_proof vests to wear, while their lives are not insured? Do you know that some policemen who you see  carry baton or are not armed when you see them on the streets , do so because the  Federal Government has not provided adequate arms and ammunition for the NPF and these are not items you can buy on the market?