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The Inspector General of Police, IGP,  Solomon Arase, has said that the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has lost over 435 of its men and officers within the last six months. Arase disclosed this yesterday in Osogbo while speaking at a session held with members of Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC and traditional rulers during his one day working visit to Osun State.

He emphasised the major role being played by the traditional rulers in maintaining security of lives and property in their domain and urged them to do more in exposing criminals. Mr Arase called on traditional rulers in the state to assist police in its work, saying the space was bigger for the police alone, stressing the need for community policing.

Meanwhile, Osun State governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, also yesterday suggested solutions to some of the security challenges facing the country, by demanding more efficient collaborations between the Nigerian Police and the Department of the State  Services, DSS. Receiving the IGP who paid him a courtesy visit in Osogbo, Aregbesola noted that the two security agencies must work together in the interest of Nigeria’s democracy. He said the synergy was needed by the agencies for them to be able to effectively penetrate the ranks of the insurgents and kidnappers and bring their activities to a halt. The governor also called on the IGP to provide an additional six Area Commands of police in the state to make nine Police Area Commands.

In his remarks, IGP Arase commended Aregbesola for providing police in the state with equipments that will make them discharge their duties effectively.

Meanwhile, A Port Harcourt High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, presided over by Justice Adolphus Enebeli, yesterday sentenced a police officer, Inspector Samuel Timothy, to death by hanging.

Timothy was convicted for shooting and killing one Onyekachi Nwasouba, a graduate of Industrial Chemistry at about 5am on November 10, 2010, along Old Aba Road, Port Harcourt. However, his colleague, Corporal Obediah Moses, was discharged and acquitted.

The deceased, Nwasouba, who was into production and distribution of sachet water, was said to have been branded a robber by the policemen on the fateful day after he had gone to distribute his products to customers. It was gathered that the convict, who led the police patrol team, pursued him to the front of his house and shot him dead, after he had shouted that he was not a robber.

Delivering his judgement, the trial judge, Enebeli, in a three-hour verdict, said the convict who had been standing trial since 2010 alongside Moses demonstrated act of inhumanity. He stated that going by the testimonies of witnesses (including members of the patrol team) in the matter, the convict was an “inhuman trigger-happy policeman, who engages in murder; a hater of humankind and merciless killer after hearing that the victim was an ordinary pure water seller.”

Enebeli maintained that the killing was deliberate and pronounced death sentence on him, saying, “According to Section 319 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I do not have the power to reduce your sentence. That, you, Inspector Timothy Sampson be hanged on your neck until you are dead.”

Moses was discharged and acquitted by the court on grounds that all the policemen on duty that day did not conspire to kill the victim; rather, they wanted to demonstrate esprit de corps.