The Inspector General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has directed police personnel across the country to deal decisively with those bearing illegal firearms under Force Order 237. He gave the directive during a town hall meeting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, as part of an operational visit to the state prompted by rising insecurity and a spate of killings that have unsettled communities in the area.
The meeting was held at the old banquet hall of the government house and was attended by Governor Hyacinth Alia alongside traditional and religious leaders. The police chief's visit came directly on the back of the increased insecurity and the killings in the state, which he and other officials cast as a challenge requiring an urgent and coordinated response.
Disu said police officers no longer need to wait for any superior order before responding to criminals bearing arms, stressing that they know when to deploy their firearms and have been instructed and trained to do what is necessary. He said the force was tired of losing its men, lamenting that police officers, soldiers and other members of the security agencies had been dying in encounters with criminals.
The Inspector General said the directive was aimed at ending the loss of service personnel when they confront armed criminals and at restoring peace to the state. He stressed, however, that success would depend on the cooperation of all the stakeholders present, and declared that he did not want to leave Benue that day without bringing a solution to the problem of insecurity.
Governor Alia threw his weight behind the directive and used the platform to renew his call for the implementation of state police to help the conventional force tackle insecurity. He argued that state police was something that had been required much earlier, and that the debate should no longer be about whether it is needed but about how it would be structured so that it does not become an instrument of oppression.
Community, traditional and religious leaders at the town hall pledged their support for the security effort, describing the people of Benue as peace-loving, accommodating and hospitable, and expressing readiness to back whatever measures would return the state to what it used to be. They linked the wave of violence to repeated attacks on residents, including children, in different parts of the state.
The meeting ended with a charge for young people in Benue to work with the police on intelligence gathering against all forms of criminality. Both the Inspector General and the governor framed close cooperation between the federal and state authorities, and between the security agencies and ordinary residents, as central to restoring stability and confronting the killings and banditry in the state.