Members of the general public have been called upon to readily supply useful information to the police and testify in court if need be.
The appeal was made by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ataoja Police Divison, Mr Clement Agbemoroti at the monthly meeting of the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) at the division recently.
Agbemoroti who spoke through Mr Adeniran Emmanuel, the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) said some people when they are attacked or duped easily call on the police to come to their rescue. Unfortunately enough, when the culprits are apprehended, they barely cooperate with the police to provide useful information in the prosecution of the case.
“Without concrete evidence which courts rely on, cases are easily dismissed, when that happens, members of the public easily attribute it to either bribe or underhand dealings by the police”, he disclosed.
He urged communities that engage the services of vigilante to ensure that they operate within their limits.
Agbemoroti said even though men of the vigilante group are not authorised to arrest a thief or a criminal, they can easily alert the police to come to their rescue.
The police Chief further reiterated the fact that PCRC members are “civilian police” who can arrest criminals and hand them over to the police. He however warned that such criminals should not be beaten.
Members of the PCRC were told of a recently purchased Bajaj motorcycle which was lost due to the stupidity and greed of the owner.
Two people boarded a motorcycle to a popular eatery in old Governor’s area of the state capital. On getting there, the motorcyclist was asked to wine and dine with them, his passengers.
At a point, one of the passengers asked for the key to the newly-purchased motorcycle to go home and get more money. The motorcyclist freely offered the key because he was drunk.
He kicked-started the motorcycle machine while the attempt by the second person to hop on the motorcycle away with it, woke the drunk motorcyclist from his slumber.
The man with the motorcycle fled away but the second person was arrested. The motorcycle was later recovered at Sekona where it was abandoned.
In a related development, a member of the PCRC counselled the people to be cautious particularly in the evening and night when riding motorcycle.
He, in another informative story, narrated how he spotted a polythene bag abandoned in the middle of the road at Iludun area of the state capital recently. On picking the bag, he discovered that it contained N21,000 (Twenty one thousand naira only) and a handset.
On getting home, a woman who identified herself as the owner of the missing but found handset called persistently, she came with her husband to explain how she lost the money and the handset.
The woman said she took a motorcycle to Oke-Baale from Testing ground bus stop through the dusty Ona Baba Ona route.
Along the way, the cyclist brought out a rifle and demanded that the woman drop all the money with her. On sighting the rifle the woman complied but in an attempt to push the polythene bag into his pocket, it fell on ground. It was then the good Samaritan saw and picked it up.
The general public were advised to be security conscious by putting on security lights in their homes at night.
