Hot SourceAnambra State Commissioner of Police, Ikioye Orutugu, in this interview speaks about the new found peace in the state, but insists that under his watch, the command won’t tolerate any political crisis especially during the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state. David-Chyddy Eleke brings excerpts:
We noticed there have been relative peace in Anambra since you came on board over a month ago. Did you adopt any strategy?
There is no special strategy, there may be a pattern of action that is determined by the challenge at hand, but definitely not a strategy. If that is what you call a strategy, then fine, but I cannot say there is a strategy we have evolved to treat all cases. We just take each case with the challenge they come with. We came into Anambra State with the proper knowledge of the feeling of Anambra people, and we know that Anambra people have gone through a lot and do not want to continue with this kind of insecurity.
When I came here, I asked myself are Anambra people happy the way they are and I felt they are not. There is no way they will be happy. This is not the Anambra that is known all over the world, especially for their ingenuity in business and any field of life.
So I said to myself, why won’t they enjoy their game? Anambra people have a right to self fulfillment and Anambra people deserve to enjoy peace, and I know that the people are tired of the bloodletting in their state, and grace has paved way for me to operate here.
The peace we have today is not by my might, but the grace of God and support of sister agencies like the army, DSS , civil defence, Navy, etc. So if you talk about any form of strategy, then I will say there is no conceived strategy. I’m proud to say that since I arrived this state, not a bullet has been shot at the police and none has been shot at criminals. So I want to thank even the criminals for all the peace they have given us. Any how you want to look at it, we have to even thank the IPOB people because they have remained on their lane since I came here, so we must thank them. I don’t want to see them as criminals. As long as they remain on their lane, I have no problem with them. But I want to say that I will revenge any touch on any police officer in this command as far as I’m here. They should remain the way they are and let us remain as we are, so that we can all move on the part of development.
How will you have development when you harass and kidnap construction workers who are coming to bring development in your community? Look at the sit at home thing, Anambra which is the pride of Nigeria in business, through where the people have become so rich, even though it has no known mineral resources like other states, but they have continued to top the chart in wealth through internally generated revenue, but here people want to deny the Anambra man the opportunity to come out on Monday after resting over the weekend, then you must know that they are invoking poverty on themselves. Let Anambra people know that if they obey sit at home, they are invoking poverty on themselves. That is why government, in collaboration with the police are doing all that we can to ensure the safety of the people. Why can you tell the people to stay at home because of your political stand? There are better ways to go about agitations, not suffering your own people. If you kill 10 police officers here, majority of them are either from the South East or even from Anambra, so you are killing your own people. If they burn police station, I doubt if the federal government will wake up one morning and leave every project it has, to allocate money for the reconstruction of burnt police stations. So it is still money that the state would have put into other things that they now spend to do these things. They should think of more better ways and maybe one day, their demands may come to pass.
But if you think you will make such demands through killing of security officers, then it may not work. That is why we are continually pleading with the youths to continue to keep the peace, and if they don’t, then we will engage them.
You inherited problems when you came here, and I want you to speak about the children who were killed and stuffed in a freezer in Nnewi, and the lawmaker whose killers escaped. What have you done about that so far?
I said we will get them, but you must know that those crimes happened before I came here. I was not even aware of the killing of the lawmaker, because it happened before I came here and took over. It was when I heard of the escape of some suspects that I started asking questions to know the circumstances under which they escaped and was told they were people who were involved in the kidnap and eventual killing of the lawmaker, Hon Justice Azuka. There are certain things I do not have the authority to comment on. I was not even told of the case and it was not handed to me. If you come into an office and you were not handed over all the assets and liabilities of that office, you can not claim what you don’t know of or was not given. I came in and heard of it and started making inquiries.
At this point, I want to plead with the media, that whatever they are writing about security in Anambra State should be from February 10, 2025 when I took over this office. I cannot inherit the liability of other people. I can tell you that since I came here, the men and officers of the command have been gingered. I know that Anambra people support what we are doing, and we have been working to ensure that the state is secured. We will continue to work and ensure this and we are hopeful that we will keep the state safe like this for three months before we will come out and celebrate.
Anambra communities appear to have too many crisis, be it land or leadership tussle. What is the command doing in this regard?
It is in human nature to have crisis. There are crises in Anambra communities, even in my own community in Bayelsa where I come from, there are also crises. Even God knows that human nature is full of crisis and acknowledges so.
Most times, people attribute insecurity to happenings around political circles, especially as many politicians have loyalists.
It’s an election year in Anambra and very soon, politics will begin to heat up. What is your promise to the state as they get ready for the election?
I want to be frank. It took me two weeks after arriving in Anambra for me to know that this is an election year for the state. I came here without that knowledge. I only came here with one thing in mind, and that is to tackle the insecurity that the state has been witnessing. I’m a very pragmatic person and I tackle issues as they come. As for election, I want to tell you that election is for politicians, and police is for tackling insecurity. I will only say that we hope that politicians will conduct themselves well during the election, and we will not have any problem with them.
We will not tolerate crisis that will engulf Anambra state. I’m myself a product of crisis, I’m an ijaw man from Bayelsa State. With due respect, I want to say that there is no crisis going on here that Bayelsa has not tasted. In fact, there is no crisis going on here. Nothing is new to me and nothing agitates me. So, I want to say that even if the election is coming up tomorrow, we are ready for it, and I can only say that those who will get trouble from us are those who want to give trouble to Anambra, but those who want peace will reap peace.
