By Francis Sadhere, Warri
As more and more police stations are getting burnt down by unknown gunmen in the country, Mr Shola Mese, a security expert and Chief Executive Officer of Focus Guard Security Ltd, a security outfit in Delta, has tasked the police to focus more on intelligent gathering.
Mese was reacting to Sunday’s attack by hoodlums who reportedly attacked Ashaka police station in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta, burning down the police station alongside patrol vehicles.
The security expert in a telephone chart with our Correspondent in Warri, said there was also need to put security checkpoints far away from the Police stations to prevent easy access to the police stations.
“what the police need to do now, like some states are doing, is to fortify their stations.
“They have been to lousy for some time now. Take the Army Barracks or Navy Base for instance. Before you gain entry into the barracks you have to pass through many gates.
“But at the police stations, your have only one gate to pass. So what do you expect. They should create enough barriers far away from the Police Station armoury so as to restrict easy access,” Mese said.
He also tasked the police to find out those behind the burning and the reasons why they are burning Police Stations.
“Like I keep saying, you hardly see any armed rubber attack traffic warders on the road. They only go after those policemen that carry guns around.
“The burning of police stations in the state is not done because they just want to burn down police stations. I think they are doing it because they are actually going for the arms in the police stations.
“Now, another question you will want to ask is why are they going for arms?
“There is threat everywhere. We have the issues of herdsmen, Boko Haram, kidnapping and lot of other security threats.
“In all these threats some of these bad boys want arms that they could use to protect themselves. So what do you expect them to do.
“So first, let the police identify those behind the burning and why they are burning the police stations in the state.
“We all know that there is no communal crisis going on in these communities where they are burning police stations. If there were, then it would have been a different things entirely,” Mese said.
To solve the problem, Mese also advocated for retraining of police officers in the country.
“I am one of those who advocate that carrying of arms around the whole place by policemen is not the best form of security. You cannot say you want to keep peace and you are carrying arms around.
“The person you are carrying arms for is a human being and he also wants to protect himself too. So it’s a matter of who presses the trigger first.
“You hardly see an army man or a navy man going around with his rifle. They move in groups either in a vehicle or in a beat.
“But you see our policemen strolling alone with a rifle. In such a situation the bad boys can easily overpower such policeman.”
