Nigerian Police Officers
December 29, 2017
The Police in Bayelsa says it is investigating the recent armed attack on Oronto Douglas’ residence and Okoroba community in Nembe Local Government Area of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Douglas was attacked by yet to be identified gunmen on Dec. 26.
There are claims by some members of the community that the police did not respond to distress calls during the attack on some residences including that of the late Oronto Douglas, a former Commissioner for Information in the state.
Okoroba is the hometown of the late Douglas, who was also a Special Adviser on Research and Documentation to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
However, Oronto’s younger brother, Gift, told NAN on telephone on Friday that a police team visited the crime scenes on Thursday, two days after a distress call was made to commence investigation on the incident.
Gift said that he personally reported the incident when it was happening to the command’s public relations officer as well as the Nembe Police Division.
“The Police just visited the community,” Gift said.
He also claimed that he contacted some other security teams that often patrol the waterways, alleging that none of them responded.
According to him, some gunmen, numbering about 15, on Tuesday night, attacked Okoroba community carting property worth millions of Naira.
Reacting to the incident, Mr Alagoa Morris, an Environmental Rights Activist and an ally of late Douglas, condemned the attack on the residence of a late humanist who served the people selflessly.
He expressed regrets that the responses of the security agencies were hampered because the community was not accessible by road, urging the state and federal governments to tighten security in coastal communities.
“The security deployments to oil rich coastal communities should also be for residents and not only to concentrate all manpower on oil installations alone.
“I wept on reading media reports on such attack on the residence of Douglas who was so selfless and worked for the Niger Delta environment who died in his prime in service of the nation as if his untimely death was not enough some people desecrated the land,” Morris said.
Reacting to the allegations, the police said it visited the scene of the crime following reports of the attack to unravel the crime.
Mr Asinim Butswat, a Deputy Superintendent of Police and Spokesman for Bayelsa Police Command, told NAN that investigation was ongoing and the media would be briefed appropriately.
