Delta State Police force under the headship of Commissioner of Police, CP Ari Muhammed Ali, is once again receiving encomiums for it’s huge contributions towards ensuring security of the citizenry.
Point News247 reports that prior to his entrant as the 20th
Commissioner of Police, Delta State Police Command on January 12,
2021, Delta State was notorious for criminality as hoodlums felt free to carry out their atrocious acts.
With an estimated land area of 16, 842 square kilometers and a cover
landmass of 18, 050 square kilometers of which 60 per cent is land and
the rest creeks and streams; successive Commissioners of Police of the
Command bore witness to the fact that policing the state was far from
being a tea party. It was a story of one day, one crime.
However, the magic wand of the true definition of an astute Police
officer and brain, instinctive in CP Muhammed Ali; whose policing
stratagem has yet defied characterization, put paid to the hitherto
gory tales of woes that were the lot of the good people of Delta
State.Little wonder, within a short period of assumption of office, the
Nassarawa state born crime fighter extra-ordinaire whose inimitable
footprints in Lagos State Police Command have remained indelible in
the annals of crime fighting; having served in all capacities
including being DCOMPOL Ops under three CPs in the commercial nerve
center of the country, CP Muhammed Ali introduced a new vista in the
narrative of tackling the menace of armed robbery, kidnapping, vehicle
snatching and of course, cultism and street gangsterism in Delta
State.
His peculiar modus oparandi of inculcating native intelligence in
crime fighting as a cerebral and operational officer has since become
a handbook for sister Commissioners of Police. He was quoted as
telling his officers and men and traditional rulers in one of the town
hall meetings that; “I am here to fight crime and reduce it to the
barest minimum. I am not here in Delta state to look at fine faces nor
here to inspect oil installations, no. I am her to work in line with
the policy thrust of my IGP who sent me here. So, anybody who is not
ready to work with me is free to voluntarily leave now otherwise, he
or she will leave with a note to his or her next deployment. And to
you my elders and revered traditional rulers, we need your cooperation
especially, in the area of volunteering vital information that will
enable us serve you better. Together we shall win this war against
insecurity.”And basking in the euphoria as a multiple award winning officer who
cuts his teeth in police operations in Lagos State Command and an
apostle of community policing, CP Ali hit the ground running by making
police visibility a common sight in all the nook and crannies of the
state.
The usual killing of Policemen and snatching their arms by persons
suspected to be members of the proscribed IPOB took a permanent flight
with the dislodgment of their criminal hideouts in the forests of
Okpanam and Anwai-Illah road. And to give a bite to the warning
signals which he handed down to his officers and men to live up to
expectation or exit the state, a DPO who was found wanting was
promptly redeployed out of the state. The incessant attacks on
hapless farmers by criminals masquerading as Fulani herdsmen became
history. Peace returned to the state with socio-economic activities
thriving once more and the people were happy for it.
A rough statistics of criminal incidents in their entire state
obtained in the month of January 2021 to date; showed a downward slope
of 424 as against the precious year of 2,013. Out of this number,
there were only 173 armed robbery cases reported compared to the 7,034
in the previous year. In the same vein, only 83 kidnap cases were
recorded as against 478 in the previous year while 102 murder-related
and 66 cultist-related cases were recorded respectively as against 200
murder related incidents and 578 cult-related incidents that were
recorded in the previous year respectively. A total of 202 suspected armed robbers were either arrested and or
had their nefarious plans busted before they were hatched while 81
kidnappers were also arrested with 73 victims rescued and reunited
with their relations and loved ones. The figure also showed that 91
persons were arrested for murder while 513 cultists were arrested
either in their initiation grounds, their hideouts or during
inter-cult clashes.
The Delta State Police Command under the conscious watch of CP
Muhammed Ali coupled with a formidable workforce achieved a rare feat
in the recovery of arms and ammunition with an astonishing 227 arms of
varying calibers and 10,151 ammunition recovered from suspected IPOB
members, kidnappers and cultists respectively. The ratio showed that
156 arms were recovered from kidnappers and armed robbers, 49 from
suspected cultists and 22 from murder suspects respectively. Out of
the total number of 10,151 recovered ammunition, 6,545 were from IPOB
members, kidnappers and armed robbers respectively while 1,352 were
recovered from cultists.
With these commendable and modest achievements recorded in less than a
year, prominent Deltans from all walks of life both within and in
Diaspora could not but continually applaud the policing strategies of
CP Muhammed Ali who they described as a detribalized Nigerian.Honourable Joan Mrakpor, a respectable woman of substance whose magic
wand changed the fortunes of Asaba municipality, unconsciously mused
away: “That man is a blessing to Delta State. Incidentally, he is
policing a state which Governor is so passionate about the security of
lives and property of his people. Apart from being a detribalized
person, he knows his onions. I understand that he is not new to the
state but I think that is not the issue. He sure knows the police job.
We know what Asaba township used to be prior to my appointment as the
DG, Asaba Capital Development Agency, he assisted us with his men
while we carried out the various demolitions we did to give the state
capital a facelift from the former slum to what it is today. That man
is alive to his responsibilities. The usual report of kidnapping along
the notorious Ubulu-Uku-Onicha-Ugbo road that claimed innocent lives
have long ceased. If we have such level headed Police officers like CP
Ali to man states like Lagos, Port Harcourt and some of the volatile
states in the country, we would be happy for it.”
Another respondent based in far away USA, Ogbueshi Obi Chukwuka said
he experienced for the first time when he visited the country July
this year the presence of Policemen everywhere in the state. “From the
Asaba airport where I landed going to my village in Akuku-Igbo I
noticed a remarkable change in what you people call police visibility.
To be sincere, when I wanted to visit Nigeria and them my home, I was
afraid because of what we used to read online about insecurity in our
state, especially kidnapping. But throughout the two weeks I spent
before going back, there was no single incident of kidnap. Usually, I
stay with my kinsmen in the morning till noon and at about 6pm, I
leave for Asaba town where I normally sleep. There was no single
incident of attack and I asked what was responsible for this and they
said it was one Hausa man Commissioner of Police that is doing the
magic. Here in the US, we are always praying that he remains in our
state, at least for now because we know the antics of the Police, very
soon they may decide to take him to another state to go and do what he
is doing in Asaba. The man is good; you can quote me.”
Yet another respondent, a veteran journalist, Emmanuel Obiamiwe
described CP Ali and his management team as one of a kind. “I think
what stands CP Ali out is his detribalized nature aside knowing the
job. He is a lover of everybody especially, pressmen. He operates open
door policy and I think that is what endeared him to all and sundry.As a journalist, I do not
think there had been any CP so receptive and
accommodating like CP Ali. His work speaks for itself; like the
lawyers would say. Our greatest fear now is that with this gale of
promotion sweeping across the forc
e, he may be moved out of the state
because he is surely representing the IGP’s policy thrust of policing
with human face. Some of you may not know, if not for CP Ali and his
team, the recently conducted Anambra State elections would not have
been the story told today. We are on ground here so we know what is
going on. Every Friday, all the hotels in Asaba are always fully
booked because of those ‘escaping’ from Enugu, Owerri and Anambra
seeking for fun. You can imagine the degree of stretch his workforce
must have to go through providing security for all. Some of us call him CP without borders.
